National Museum: A Treasure On The Bank Of The Calabar River

The Old Residency Museum

Cross River State is known for its tourism potential and the state’s ability to pull crowds to its capital city of Calabar during its widely celebrated annual Carnival Calabar held during the yuletide and tagged “Africa’s Biggest Street Party”.
When visitors come to town, they go for sightseeing in some of the most beautiful tourist attractions the country has to offer in the state; from the Tinapa Business Resort, to the Marina Resort, Drill Ranch and the Calabar Old Residency Museum amongst others which is of particular interest due to its uniqueness.
The Old Residency Museum, which was originally known as the Government House is a prefabricated structure of Scandinavian red pine wood shipped from Britain in 1884 on the instruction of Consul Edward Hewett and erected in Old Calabar to accommodate the early British Administration.
The building, a stone throw from where the Nigerian Government had housed Liberian Warlord Charles Taylor, a walk from the presidential Lodge had itself housed the prison where Oba Ovonramwem of Benin was kept in 1897 after his kingdom was invaded. A tale, renowned Nollywood producer Lancelot Imasuen tried to tell in his film, “Invasion 1897”.
“It was here that the old British colonial administration operated from. The building was a Mecca of a sort (sic), as it was a wonder to behold and one of the only such building in British West Africa” says Mrs. Anna Effiom ,Curator of the Museum.

Mrs Anna Effiom, Curator ofthe Old Residency Museum

The building which served as both the residence and administrative headquarters of the colonial government is one of the only few history museums in Nigeria and hosts some of the most preserved artefacts and documents dating back to pre-colonial period.
“Because this is a history museum, different from the Slave Museum in Marina Resort, War Museum in Umuahia, the National Museum of Colonial history in Aba it has some of the best and most preserved historical collections in the country” says Mrs. Evelyn Osuagwu who works in the Museum and also serves as the Treasurer of the Calabar Museum Society, A Non-Governmental Organization made up of staffs of the Museum and lovers of Museum working to promote and preserve the museum.

“The Museum exhibition tells the story of old Calabar as a cluster of native settlements on the Calabar River, early cultural, economic and missionary centre and first headquarters of British colonial administration of the Niger Coast Protectorate, Oil River Protectorate and later Southern Nigeria protectorate”.
“The Museum has a collection of ritual terracotta and other materials excavated locally by Late Professor Ekpo Eyo and dated 400AD-1500AD” writes Emmanuel E. for UyoCalyaxis.com