Constance Afiong “Afi” Ekong was born to members of the family of a Princess of Ekong and of the then-Obong of Calabar, in Cross River State, Nigeria. She attended primary school at Duke Town School, secondary school at Christ Church School, Calabar and Wusasa Girls’ High School in Zaria. She married Abdul Aziz Attah, a District Officer in the colonial government, in 1950. From 1952, while her husband was in Oxford for his “Devonshire Course”, A. Ekong studied pattern drafting, dress design, dressmaking and tailoring at Oxford College of Arts and Technology for two years. Between 1955 and 1957, her husband was posted to London to set up the House of Chiefs in the Eastern Region. While in London, A. Ekong studied at St. Martin’s School of Art, specialising in painting, sculpture and fashion design. A. Ekong returned to Nigeria in 1957. In 1958, she took part in the Festival of Arts exhibition in Lagos, followed by solo exhibitions in 1958, 1961 and 1962. A. Ekong participated in several group exhibitions and featured alongside prominent Nigerian Artists such as Ben Enwonwu (1917-1994), Simon Obiekezie Okeke (1937-1969), Uche Okeke (1933-2016), Okechukwu Odita (1936-), Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932-) and Demas Nwoko (1935-) at Nigeria’s Independence exhibition in 1960.

C. Ekong’s choices of subject matter, colour, content and sources of inspiration are unique, as they reflect the culture, traditions and socio-political activities in Nigeria. She was more interested in the content and philosophy of her subjects than in technique and was inspired by ethnographic materials she collected in the early 1960s.

As Art Manager of Gallery LABAC from 1961, she organised exhibitions for artists and their works were amassed as the Gallery’s Collection. She set up the Nigerian Arts Council in 1961 and other regional Art Councils, such as the Northern and Mid-Western Art Councils, in 1962. A. Ekong participated in the first Festival mondial des arts nègres (FESMAN), in Dakar, in 1966, which was organised by Léopold Sédar Senghor. She took part in the debate “Negritude or African personality”. As chairwoman of the cultural sector of the UNESCO commission in Nigeria from 1973 to 1975, A. Ekong promoted local artists.

Her works are found both in private and public collections, such as those of the Didi Museum (Lagos), Nigeria’s National Gallery of Modern Art (Lagos) and National Gallery of Art (Abuja), the Hampton University Museum (Hampton, USA), and the Fisk University’s Carl Van Vechten Gallery (Nashville, USA).