Theatrical Aesthetics and Functional Values of Ekuechi Masquerade Ensemble of the Ebira People

Posted by: Dr. Joseph Ozigis Akomodi, New York, USA.

Written by: Sunday E. ODODO
Department of the Performing Arts, University of Ilorin

ABSTRACT
Over the years Ekuechi festival of the Ebira people of Nigeria has drawn undue attention because of the energetic physical nuances that characterise its celebration. Little or no attention has been given to the festival as an art with functional responsibilities to the society. This essay explores the festival to investigate the dynamics of artistic theatre elements in a pure festive performance setting, and the functional relevance of the festival to the Ebira in particular and the wider society in general. Performative realities of space, spectacles, costumes, make-up, lighting, music, dance, props and the mise-en-scene, predominantly shape our aesthetic priorities in this essay.

The ethnographic documentation of this festival has become very important because of its socioaesthetic relevance in the understanding of the cosmology and artistic heritage of the Ebira people. The essay concludes that if the organisers take full advantage of modern theatre practice,the entire festival has potentials of becoming a major tourist attraction with meaningful economic and material benefits for the Ebira people. Key Words: Festival; Performance; Masquerade; Ebira People; Song.

INTRODUCTION
Analysing Festivals within the context of theatre practice is not entirely a new scholarly enterprise. Dionysian Festival of the ancient Greeks, for instance, formed the nucleus of a vibrant theatre culture in Greece, which now serves as a reference point for world theatre culture and the emerging new radical theatre forms. There have been raging arguments on whether African festivals qualify as drama or theatre. Eloquent voices that contributed to these arguments include Mahood (1966), Kirby (1974), Ogunba (1978), Adedeji (1978), Clark (1981) and Rotimi (1981). Others are Echeruo (1981), Horn (1981), Amankulor (1981) and Ibitokun (1993). It is not the intention of this essay to further excavate, rehash and reposition these claims and counter claims. What is important to us here however is Ogunba (1978)’s position, which Ibitokun (1993: 131) also identified with, that there are no universals of what constitute drama and theatre. He argued that:
We should for the moment cast aside the theory of drama developed in the Western tradition and see the African festival for what it is. We may then find that in its conception, articulation and artistic development the African Festival performs the same function and evokes a similar response to what literate drama does in the African Study Monographs, 22(1): 1-36, May 2001 1 Western tradition (p. 25). The import of this position for us is that what constitutes drama or theatre is culture referent. In other words it will be misleading to maintain that theatrical experience that does not conform to Western theatre cannon is no theatre. A theatrical analysis of a festival within an African culture therefore has the capacity to share similarities with Western theatre tradition and also present its own unique aestheticfeatures.

This paper focuses mainly on the activities that affect the artistic outing of Eku’rahu (the nocturnal raconteur masquerader); who is a composite actor who sings, chants, dances and directs the drumming ensemble and the audience on the general performative outlook of the Ekuechi festival. The aesthetic analysis in this case is informed by folk imagination, which is the imaginative collaboration of the virile artistic resources, anchored by the raconteur masquerade, to produce the Ekuechi performance. This research relies mainly on primary and secondary sources of information. The primary sources are derived from my consistent participation in
the festival within the last thirty years, and oral interviews with key traditional functionaries in the Ebira tradition in order to properly position the Ebira perspective of theatrical action in the festival. Secondary sources of information include the literature of relevant journal articles, textbooks, monographs, microfilms, and thesis. Ekuechi festival is a ritualistic enactment of myth, legend and traditional social events meant to mark the end of the year and usher in a new one. The Ebira people of Kogi State in Nigeria celebrate it annually. It begins from late
November, runs through December and ends in early January. The long duration is due to the fact that its period of celebration differs from one community to another in Ebiraland.

Essentially, the practice is the same. The priest of Ireba Eku (masquerade cult)
shrine sets the actual day of the festival after consulting with eva (divine oracle) for a special sign that guides the timing of the festival. Towards the end of every year,the priest of Ireba shrine always finds a dead mouse (Itapesu) at the entrance of the shrine. This vividly indicates that the current year is dead in order to give way to a new one. The day this sign is confirmed puts the date of the festival at twenty-eight days thenceforth. The star event of this festival is a night affair from which women are generally excluded. Only witches and Onokus(1) may participate. The presence of the witches is normally invisible to all present except men that also have special powers to discern spiritual presence.

Linguistically, Ebira-Igu or Koto, Ebira-Etuno, Ebira-Panda, Ebira-Oje, Ebira- Tao, and Ebira-Agatu belong to the same language group with dialectal variations. What binds them together perhaps is their claim to a common cultural ancestry. My focus is basically on the Ebira-Taos whose territory lies southwest of the confluence of the rivers Niger and Benue (Adive, 1989: 1). The Ebira-Taos dwell in a rugged, hilly area and are traditionally farmers. They are also well acknowledged for their artistry in handwoven cloth. The land they occupy is very small, when compared to the teaming population of the people. This small territory also has rocky topography, which makes settlement difficult. Paradoxically, it is in these rocks that a number of mineral resources are deposited. It is here for instance, that Nigeria’s steel industry is sited because of the large deposit of iron found in the land. Water is a scarce commodity and little space for expansion is a disturbing reality, which the people have to contend with. Despite these natural constraints to living, the people are optimistic and resilient. It is with this frame of mind, that majority of Ebira people eagerly look forward to Ekuechi festival every year to reunite with their ancestral descent.

As a popular festival, Ekuechi is full of pomp and pageantry, with a dynamic integration of poetry, chants, mimicry, mime, dance, song, music, drumming, mask, make-up, costume and significant cultural symbols. All these cohere vibrantly to attest to Ehusani (1991: 181)’s claim that “it is in Eku that the vitality and vivacity,and also the artistic genius of Ebiras find the highest expression.” Eku is ancestral masquerade. Eku, which represents the ancestors, is believed to ‘descend’ (Chi) from the world beyond during Ekuechi festival. Eku and Chi thus respectively form the prefix and suffix in Eku e Chi. Literally translated, it means, “the ancestors are descending.” This partly explains how the name of the festival is derived.

ORIGIN OF THE FESTIVAL
There are few accounts of how the festival started. However, the differences in these accounts are not fundamental. Generally, Ireba Eku (masquerade cult) was believed to have been formed under the divine instruction of God to check the excesses of women, apart from serving as ancestor worship. Myth has it that after creating man and woman as husband and wife, one day God sent for the man but he was too busy to honour the call. Instead, he requested his wife to heed God’s call on his behalf. God gave her Irakwo (an egg-like object that contains the secrets of life and has the capacity to manifest supernatural powers) for her husband. Having discovered its contents and being fascinated by them, she hid it in her uterus and later swallowed it without giving it to her husband. She thereafter became quite powerful, performing supernatural feats as turning into any animal and changing back to a human being. She could instantly grow wings to fly around in astral travels. She also became capable of all sorts of mysterious transformations. Her husband became envious of her powers. In sympathy, God enabled the husband to create the Eku masquerade cult from which women membership is strongly discouraged as a
counterforce to the powers the women posses. The Adeika of Eika, the traditional Chief of Eika clan in Ebiraland in an interview recorded by Shamoos Adeiza, collaborated this notion: Eika is the senior clan in Ebiraland and Ekuechi originated from them. The real origin of the festival is a traditional secret and I wonder whether I should reveal it. Well, well, I will...Ekuechi originated from necessity, for when witchcraft crept into Ebiraland it was the women who reigned supreme in the cruel craft and they cheated us men by it. Many people were being killed by them
especially men. In retaliation, we men also set up the Eku cult to dread the women. Women are made to believe that Ekus who perform during Ekuechi are ancestor spirits raised from the dead to come and admonish, warn and punish evildoers in their songs and ritual (Adeiza, 1994). This is one of the major reasons women’s participation in the night performance of Eku’rahu is highly restricted. According to Ogunba (1978: 24), Theatrical Aesthetics and Functional Values in many African cultures women are not admitted into the secrets of the masking art; indeed, they are often the favourite target of masking and satirical ridicule, the assumption being that they live a more poetical life than their menfolk, have secret powers, are more of spirits than human beings, and therefore an object of fear or veneration. A more encompassing conceptual thought on this phenomenon of female exclusion from masquerade cults within the African context resides in the understanding that:
Traditionally, like everything else of any importance, masquerading and its secrets arethe prerogatives of the men-and initiates at that. Women have been excluded from sharing in the secrets for they are weak and fickle and are therefore not fit to take part in them. They are also mysterious and sometimes unclean. They cannot therefore approach these ancestral
manifestations, whose character is diametrically opposed to their own. Any meeting between them would have adverse effects on both parties. Much harm would come to the women and masquerades would lose something of their virtue. Apart from this fear, there is the desire to avert the wrath of these spirits whose condescension to visit mankind in the form of
masquerades is a great honour, which must not be abused. They are mindful of the fact that ancestral spirits are superior to mere mortals and constitute an unusual phenomenon when they assume physical forms(Nzekwu, 1981: 132).

In modern times, however, women are beginning to pick information here and there on the secrets of masquerading without being participants. Nevertheless, the mysticism surrounding the masquerade cult is still intact, for previous attempt to neutralise this always met with stiff mystic and physical opposition from custodians and a cross section of Ebira people who believe strongly in the inviolability of such cultural practices
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Please click the website below for the full research document:
http://www.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/22-1/1-36.pdf