The Old Residency Museum is the most important cultural institution in Calabar and one of the best regional museums in Nigeria. The building that houses it is extraordinary in itself: a prefabricated structure shipped in pieces from Britain in 1884, erected on a ridge above the Calabar River to serve as the Government House of the Niger Coast Protectorate. It was declared a national monument in 1959.
Inside, the museum holds the largest collection of documents and artefacts covering the history of Calabar and the Cross River region, with particular strength in the palm oil trade, the Atlantic slave trade, and the colonial period. The exhibits are thoughtful and well-annotated — rare for Nigeria — and give proper weight to the perspectives of the Efik people and the enslaved Africans who passed through this port. Give yourself two hours here; it is genuinely absorbing.