Opening of Ikot Ekpene church, Nigeria, 1933

Black and white photograph of the opening of the Methodist Church in the town of Ikot Ekpene, in the Akwa-Ibom state of Nigeria in December 1933. A group of dignitaries, including the Lieutenant Governor of the Southern Provinces of Nigeria, Captain Walter Buchanan Smith, stand in the church doorway. Spectators stand on either side of the entrance path into the church. The caption to this photograph reads: "Opening of Ikot Ekpene Church, December 1934." However, the church was opened in December 1933. Ikot Ekpene is and was a commercial centre, exporting palm oil, palm kernels and raffia around the world. This photograph was pasted into one of a series of exercise book albums created by Emily Godfrey, Matron of the Ama Achara Methodist Hospital, a facility in southeast Nigeria run by the Methodist Missionary Society.