In Kalabari society, wealth is measured by how many people a man has in his House, defined both as a place of residence and as family, including living relatives, ancestors, adopted members and, formerly, domestic slaves. Every powerful House had a war canoe as well as paddlers and pilots to navigate the Niger delta, the inland rivers and the estuaries along the Atlantic coast. Both the boat and the house in this headdress are symbols of wealth. The pregnant stomach also alludes to the importance of people as wealth.

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