Abstract
Premised on the immutable fact that no society can thrive in isolation, this work explores intergroup relations between the Efik and the Ejagham, two ethnic nationalities of the Cross River Region which cuts across Southern Nigeria and Southwestern Cameroon. It looks at a sixty-years (1900-1960) period of the not-always-rosy relationship which involved trade, intermarriages, wars, religion - and how these relations shaped the culture of the two peoples and other groups in the region. Chronologically, the scope of study covers the period of colonization, nationalist movements, and terminates in 1960 – the year in which both Nigeria and Cameroon got their independence from their respective European colonizers, and one in which the people found themselves on the cusp of a new beginning after centuries of intervention by the European world. The study utilizes primary sources in the form of face-to-face interviews, documented family traditions, as well as secondary sources among which are the invaluable works of early European explorers of the region.