Info For You Lot Ibibio People:The Virtually Ancient Nigerian Ethnic Grouping As Well As Their Famous Ekpo Hole-And-Corner Society
"Every linguistic communication is a temple inwards which the soul of the people who speak it is enshrined" Rev. E. Smith,advocating for adoption of Ibibio as a written linguistic communication inwards Nigeria.
"As the neat Greek philosopher says:
Man know thy self.
We say: Man know thy culture.
Man know thy worldview.
Man know thy language.
For linguistic communication is the primary agency of
preserving as well as transmitting culture.
Speak your language, do non allow it die.
By doing this,
You save your civilization as well as identity."
Ibibio cultural dancers from Akwa Ibom state,Nigeria
The Ibibio people are Kwa speaking people Benue-Congo grouping of Niger-Congo language, occupying the palm belt inwards the southeast Nigeria`s Akwa Ibom state and are regarded as the most ancient of all the ethnic groups inwards Nigeria.They are related to the Anaang as well as the Efik peoples. During colonial catamenia inwards Nigeria, the Ibibio Union asked for recognition past times the British as a sovereign land (Noah, 1988). The Annang, Efik, Ekid, Oron as well as Ibeno part personal names, culture, as well as traditions alongside the Ibibio, as well as speak closely related varieties of Ibibio-Efik. Prior to present-day Nigeria they were regarded as Ibibio tribes speaking dialects of Ibibio.
Ibibio human being as well as his wife,Akwa Ibom state,Nigeria
Dr. Mon Noah inwards his piece of work "Ibibio Pioneers inwards Modern Nigerian History" writes: “The Ibibio occupy mostly the mainland parts of the Cross River State as well as constitute the quaternary largest ethnic grouping inwards Nigeria. The major Ibibio sub-groups include the Oron, Eket, Ibuno, as well as Annang as well as in that location are also some Ibibio communities inwards most of the line-fishing settlements along the estuary of the Cross River. The Efik people of Calabar are descendants of Ibibio people.” However, Annang, Efik as well as other related people regard themselves as dissimilar people as described past times Dr Mon Noah as well as other historians.
"Ibio-ibio" agency curt or brief as well as doesn't receive got anything to do alongside acme of the Ibibios...! The hollo was given due the Ibibios brief way of doing things.
The nearest neighbours of the Ibibio are the Ibo (Igbo) to the northwest, Ijaw to the southwest as well as Efik to the southeast, alongside the Qua, Efut as well as Ekoi farther away inwards the northeast. Among these maybe the Efik are their greatest adversaries. The Ibibio come upward into conflict alongside Efik as they do concern as well as interact alongside the latter inwards Metropolitan Calabar, the spot of authorities as well as direction inwards the Cross River State.
Ibibio people:A Delegation of Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio led past times The President, Akparawa Nse Ubeh at Annang New Yam/Cultural Festival 2012
Geography as well as Location of Ibibio Land
The Ibibio people are found predominately inwards Akwa Ibom province as well as is made upward of the related Anaang community, the Ibibio community as well as the Eket as well as Oron Communities, although other groups commonly empathise the Ibibio language. Because of the larger population of the Ibibio people, they agree political command over Akwa-Ibom State, but authorities is shared alongside the Anaangs, Eket as well as Oron. The political scheme follows the traditional method of consensus. Even though elections are held, practically, the political leaders are pre-discussed inwards a mode that is benefiting to all.
The Ibibio people are located inwards Southeastern Nigeria also known as Coastal Southeastern Nigeria. Prior to the existence of Nigeria as a Nation, the Ibibio people were self-governed. The Ibibio people became a component of the Eastern Nigeria of Nigeria nether British colonial rule. During the Nigerian Civil War, the Eastern part was split into 3 states. Southeastern State of Nigeria was where the Ibibios were located, i of the original twelve states of Nigeria) after Nigerian independence. The Efik, Anaang, Oron, Eket as well as their brothers as well as sisters of the Ogoja District, were also inwards the Southeastern State. The province (Southeastern State) was afterwards renamed Cross Rivers State. Again inwards the twelvemonth 1987, past times a Military Decree No.24 promulgated that same year, Akwa Ibom State was carved out of the as well as then Cross Rivers State as a separate State on her ain on the 23rd September, 1987.Cross Rivers State remains as i of neighboring States.
Ibibio cultural troupe
Southwestern Republic of Cameroon was a component of introduce Cross River State as well as Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. During the as well as then Eastern Region of Nigeria it got partitioned into Republic of Cameroon inwards a 1961 plebiscite. This resulted inwards the Ibibio, Efik, as well as Annang beingness divided betwixt Nigeria as well as Cameroon. However, the leadership of the Northern Region of Nigeria was able to maintain "Northwestern section" during the referendum that is right away today's Nigerian Adamawa as well as Taraba states.
Language
The Ibibio tribe is the 4th largest ethnic laid inwards Nigeria, as well as barely outnumbered past times the Igbo their neighbor. Apart from the Igbos, the other 2 ethnic groups that outnumbers Ibibio are the Hausa as well as Yoruba. About v i thou 1000 people inwards Nigeria speak Ibibio as their woman parent natural language as well as inhabit much of the South- eastern component of the country. Among the 4 i thou 1000 speakers are minor groups speaking minor 'languages" identified as Ito, Itu Mbon Uso, Iwere, Nkari as well as Ukwa (cf. Essien 1987:34).
Ibibio people of Akwa Ibom State
Genetically, the Ibibio linguistic communication belongs to the Benue-Congo sub-family which inwards plow belongs to the Niger-Congo family, i of the largest families of knguages inwards Africa, according to Greenberg's (1963) classification. Still, nether this genetic classification Ibibio belongs to the Lower Cross group, a grouping of closely related languages to which Efik as well as Annang, alongside which Ibibio forms a cluster of dialects, also belong, as well as to which nosotros refer as Ibibiod.
Lexical Comparison of Words inwards Ibibio Dialects
Eaglish Ibibio Efik Oron Eket
God Abasi Abasi Abasi Abasi
human being Eden Eren Onwieni Aniniewe
adult woman Awowan Nwan Utangayo Mbaba
me Ami Ami Omi Amei
you lot Afo Afo Ofu Afe
i Kied Kiet Ki Kiang
2 Iba Iba Iba Iba
3 Ita Ita Ita Ita
4 Inang Inang Iniang Iniang
Source: F E K Amoah`s Field Study, (June, 1986).
The Ibibio linguistic communication is old as the people themselves, dating dorsum centuries ago. However, its history as a written linguistic communication is really recent. Although Ibibio was truly written only inwards 1983, the attempts to write as well as develop the linguistic communication go dorsum as far as to the fourth dimension Efik itself was close to live written inwards the final century (between 1846 as well as 1862, when Hugh Goldie's Dictionary of the Efik Language was published). For according to Jeffreys (1935:106), the foremost elbow grease to write Ibibio was defeated past times only 2 votes, as the quotation below shows:
At the Language Conference held inwards Calabar the motion to impose the Efik dialect on the Ibibio race was carried past times 2 votes as well as then, only because 2 members refrained from voting. That defeat of Ibibio or victory for Efik has made all the difference, for the Efik dialect was to live imposed on the Ibibio race past times the early on missionaries to this component of the world whose efforts were directed towards the evolution of Efik, as pointed out past times Jeffreys (1935:2)
The missionaries naturally directed their foremost studies to the Efik linguistic communication alongside the resultant that the Efik receive got benefited enormously as well as their linguistic communication has inevitably assumed a spot that is non justified either upon population or linguistic basis.
In spite of the initial -set-back for Ibibio, Jeffreys, a i fourth dimension District Officer of Nigeria, produced an orthography for the Ibibio linguistic communication as well as made a passionate plea to the missionary as well as other authorities that Ibibio live used officially side past times side alongside Efik for mutual benefits (cf. Jeffreys 1935:103). But this orthography was rejected as well as the elbow grease to brand Ibibio an official linguistic communication failed.
Consequent upon this rejection, Ibibio was to rest unwritten as well as unofficial for decades until 1983, when alongside the sponsorship of an Ibibio cultural organization, Akwa Esop Imaisong Ibibio, an orthography was produced as well as presented to the Ministry of Education of the as well as then Cross River State of which the introduce Akwa Ibom was a part. The orthography, edited past times this author, was officially approved past times the Ministry of Education as well as inwards -a missive of the alphabet MOE/COM/IA Vol. X/482 of twelfth September, 1983, the as well as then Commissioner for Education, Professor E.J. Usua, directed that Ibibio live taught inwards all schools inwards what is right away Akwa Ibom State using the orthography as the criterion one. Ibibio is in all likelihood the only linguistic communication so far inwards Nigeria whose orthography has been designed as well as produced past times the owners of the linguistic communication themselves. The orthographies of the other languages, including those of the major languages, receive got been produced past times either expatriate missionaries or authorities agencies.
Ibibio Creation Mythology
The creator, Abassi, created 2 humans as well as and then decided to non allow them to alive on earth. His wife, Atai, persuaded him to allow them, the people, alive on earth.
In monastic enjoin to command the humans, Abassi insisted that they eat all their meals alongside him, thereby keeping them from growing or hunting food.
He also forbade them to receive got children. Soon, though, the adult woman began growing nutrient inwards the earth, as well as they stopped showing upward to eat alongside Abassi.
Then the human being joined his married adult woman inwards the fields, as well as before long in that location were children also.
Abassi blamed his married adult woman for the way things had turned out, but she told him she would handgrip it.
She sent to earth, decease as well as discord to maintain the people inwards their place, as well as their numbers down.
History/Origin
Ibibios are regarded as the most ancient of all the ethnic groups inwards Nigeria,however, "There are no legends or traditions of root amid the Ibibio. They receive got been long plenty inwards the Forest belt to receive got forgotten the stories of their origin. (Jeffreys, 192 7,p. 28). As a resultant in that location many stories close their origins. According to Robert McKeon, the Ibibio are in all likelihood the indigenous natives from whom most minor tribes of Qua Ibom as well as Calabar are descended.
Ibibio people,Circa 1915
Ibibio Traditions of Origin as well as Ethnic Relations
Information close Ibibio origins is highly speculative as well as varied. Available traditional sources suggest that the earliest stock of the Ibibio included the Afaha clan whose ancestral identify is believed to live Usak Edet (Isangele) inwards South-western Republic of Cameroon as well as that in that location are strong cultural similarities betwixt the Ibibio as well as the Bakoko of Southern Republic of Cameroon (Noah, 1980a). It is suggested that the highland regions of this component of Africa may receive got been a major centre of human evolution on the continent (Dike,1956). According to Ford as well as Jones, the Ibibio settlement of Isangele right away forms a minor tribe inwards the Kumba Division of Cameroon.
Ibom centre historical hypothesis of root of Ibibio
It is farther suggested that the Ibibio people migrated from these eastern parts of their introduce homeland inwards 2 major directions. One grouping may receive got reached what is right away the Ibibio Mainland past times an overland route as well as settled at Ibom inwards Arochukwu formerly an Ibibio territory but right away Ibo. Noah (1980b), on the say-so of an before reference past times Jeffreys (1927) states that the Ibibio lived inwards Arochukwu (South-eastern border of Iboland) in all likelihood betwixt A.D. 1300 as well as 1400 as well as for a long fourth dimension maintained a famous shrine called Long Juju of Arochukwu at that place. But this latter proposition is discounted past times Aye (n.d) on the grounds that the Ibibio receive got no such tradition nor exercise of such a cult.
Many scholars nevertheless proceed to press the viewpoint of a centre of Ibibio dispersion from the hamlet of Ibom inwards Arochukwu to other parts of the introduce Ibibioland, (Akwa Ibom State). It is thought that the people of present-day Abak, Uyo as well as Ikot Ekpene who are described as Eastern Ibibio or Ibibio proper powerfulness receive got migrated from that cradle, although as nosotros shall regard later, the structural layout of their clans today hardly supports this viewpoint.
There are other Ibibio who, according to some other version of the migration story, seem to receive got reached the Mainland past times ocean from the east, presumably Cameroon. Among these would live the Oron, Eket, as well as Andoni people who upon arrival at the seaboard may receive got advanced northward until they came upward against the eastern Ibibio expanding southward. Indeed the Rev. Groves (1930) of the Methodist Mission suggested that the Annang or Western Ibibio migrated northward from a identify close Opobo past times the creeks of the Cross
River estuary. He based his disputation on the observation that the full general vogue inwards the province had been i of northward pressure. But such a vogue would receive got been also recent to live considered as component of a full general motion amid the early on Ibibio settlers.
Ibibio people
Original Ibibio Homeland as well as Environs
Geographically, the presumed migration of the Ibibio from the south-western highlands of Republic of Cameroon to the Lower Cross River Basin may receive got occurred through 2 natural gaps - the Benue as well as Mamfe Troughs. The Niger-Benue surface area today is a part of neat cultural multifariousness as well as complexity; but the geological history of the south-eastern lowlands shows that only the Oban Massifs as well as Adamawa Highlands stood higher upward the ocean that invaded this component of Africa during the Eocene period. This suggests that the Lower Cross River Basin powerfulness receive got remained nether the ocean for 'a long time' (Dessau as well as Whiteman, 1972).
Even inwards comparatively recent times the physical environs has presented many obstacles to costless motion of people. At the fourth dimension of the early on migrations of the Ibibio in that location must receive got been a high wood which at its primeval stage would receive got been a really hard environment. There was also a trough through which the Enyong creek right away flows. This lowland alongside marshes as well as seasonal floods could non receive got offered a hospitable environs to the early on settlers. Besides fifty-fifty though the people must receive got adjusted themselves to the riverine environment, the Cross River as well as its numerous tributaries would almost certainly receive got been formidable barriers rather than points of contact as well as interaction betwixt the Ibibio as well as the original people who may receive got before occupied the land. As all these constraints prevarication to the due south as well as south-west of the picayune hamlet of Ibom where tradition has it that the Ibibio foremost lived, it is hard to reconstruct the path through which the Ibibio 'fled', as it were, from state of war alongside the local people to their introduce homeland inwards the south. All that tin can live said is that they managed to avoid these obstacles.
The Alternative Ikono Centre (Cradle of Ibibio people) of Dispersion Hypothesis
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 to a greater extent than plausible as well as acceptable hypothesis of the lbibio migration is that proposed past times Jones (1963) who suggests that the cradle of the Ibibio people lies somewhere betwixt Abak as well as Uyo authorities stations of Akwa Ibom State. In the words of Jones:
"A study o fthe introduce distribution of the Ibibio tribes suggests an early on scatter of
the Ibibio over an surface area extending from Arochukwu inwards the north, Ika on the due west and
Own inwards the south. This was followed past times a massive dispersal due north as well as due south from
a centre somewhere betwixt the introduce Abak as well as Oyo authorities stations as well as a
differentiation into Annang (Western) as well as Ibibio (Eastern). (Jones, 1963, p. 31)."
Unfortunately Jones did non proceed whatever farther to highlight this dot beyond these few verbal statements. Ntukidem (1977) tookup the number some years afterwards to examine the validity of Jones* assertion alongside the assist of structural hypotheses which rested on the assumptions of constrained vis-a-vis unconstrained expansion of the Ibibio clans as well as settlements from a mutual centre.
Granting that the bond of mutual ancestry, customs as well as civilization may save ephemeral unity of primary communities inwards the race of expansion, inwards the foremost instance of constrained expansion inwards a conflict province of affairs i should await a restricted motion inwards i as well as the same direction. The resultant spread would resemble a fan or beam from a torchlight as inwards the instance of the Ibom Origin hypothesis. In the 2d instance of unconstrained expansion i may await a circular growth of clans as well as settlements resembling a diffusion pattern inwards ripples made past times a rock dropped into a pond or the spokes of a bicycle as inwards the instance of Ikono centre hypothesis.
Distortions, of course of study may modify these ideal patterns especially where physical obstacles limit or obstruct the costless motion of people, for example, where the population of dissimilar segments of the community is confronted alongside unfriendly neighbours as well as frequent wars. Thus if the 2 hypothesized centres of dispersion at Ibom inwards Arochukwu as well as Ikono betwixt Abak as well as Uyo authorities stations receive got whatever important at all, the impact of the motion of people would receive got been vividly recorded inwards the construction of the boundaries
as well as orientation of the dissimilar segments of the clans to the source part of the migration.
On the reason of this supposition the Ibom centre hypothesis has to live rejected on the reason that the wedge or fan-shape layout of clans expected is non represented inwards the landscape today. On the other manus the Ikono centre theory, the findings of which truly demo at to the lowest degree 16 maj or clans believed to receive got derived their root from a mutual centre, must live accepted as a reason for farther investigation.
The Evidence from Territorial Occupation past times Ibibio Clans
Of the many Ibibio clans, Ikono presents a curious shape as well as significantly in that location are portions of this sub-clan amid the western, eastern, northern as well as southern Ibibio. It runs inwards a north-west direction through the greatest length of Ibibioland. Its sub-clans are found inwards Abak, Itu, Uyo, Etinan as well as Opobo local authorities areas. Directly due north of the assumed centre is Ibiono clan whose shape conforms to what should live expected nether the presumed centrifugal growth (sectors) from a mutual centre. The clan is wedge-like inwards shape alongside its sharpest border lying close the assumed origin. From hither it stretches for nearly 70 kilometres towards the Enyong Creek.
Outside Ibiono clan towards the due north as well as north-east are Itam as well as Uruan clans which also spread out inwards a fan or wedge-shape. Between these are smaller splinter clans of Etoi, Oku as well as Efut. In the south-'eastern department 2 clans, Nsit as well as Iman stretch nearly the same distances from the centre. Ibesikpo clan's southward projection is nevertheless arrested past times twos minor intervening clans of Iwawa as well as Ndikpo. The due south western department is made upward of Abak Ukanafim as well as Ndot amid the most extensive clans as well as their arrest inwards the due west is suggestive of the high population as well as struggle for land. In the northwest, the layout consists of severally broken upward clans such as Abak, Ukanafun Afaha, Abako as well as Obong, Annang which depict an outward growth from the presumed centre.
This visual evidence inwards back upward of the Ikono centre hypothesis gives acceptance to the proposition that the Ibibio had lived inwards their introduce homeland for a "very long time" as well as casts doubts close the presupposition that the people began their migration from Ibom farther due north of this point. Indeed, the observed pattern of clan distribution inwards Ibibioland especially the long stretches of Ikono, Abak, Ibiono, Itam, Nsit, Iman as well as others from a mutual centre could hardly receive got been achieved inwards only 3 hundred years as proposed past times Talbot (1926).
Economy
The Ibibio largely engage inwards farming, fishing, as well as trading. While farming is the principal problem of the Ibibio uplands, the river-side Ibibio traditionally piece of work as fishermen at line-fishing ports commonly known as INE. Trading is done past times middlemen who human activity as brokers betwixt the producers of goods as well as the consumers.
Among the Ibibio, those of the highest rank inwards the Ekpo society, Amama, often command the bulk of the community wealth. The Amama often appropriate hundreds of acres of palm tree for their ain utilization as well as ensure alongside the profits they earn that their sons accomplish comparable rank, effectively limiting access to economical gain for most members of the community. The Ekpo society requires that its initiates sponsor feasts for the town, which fosters the appearance of the redistribution of wealth past times providing the misfortunate alongside nutrient as well as drink. In effect, this allows the disparity inwards wealth to live perpetuated inwards Ibibio society.
Outside the farming as well as line-fishing seasons the Ibibio traditionally pass their fourth dimension alongside various recreational activities, alongside games as well as sports similar wrestling, swimming, Oyo, as well as Ekara (marksmanship) as well as arrow shooting). Also moonlight plays similar 0ffiong as well as Edop furnish a skillful platform for social interaction peculiarly for the youths. Daytime plays include Ukwa, Ebre, Ibit-Abang, Ekong, as well as a host of others.
Industrial Arts
The Ibibio are good known for their science inwards wood carving as well as are considered masters of an adroit professional person technique. Weaving is to a greater extent than often than non done past times youths of both sexes, whereas women are responsible for mat making.
Division of Labor
As alongside the Igbo, yams are traditionally considered to live the main crop of men, as well as cocoyams the main crop of women. Men do most of the clearing, planting, as well as harvesting of the yams. Women weed, plant, as well as tend other crops. They also collect the harvested yams into baskets as well as ship them to the market.
In collecting the make from palm trees, men to a greater extent than often than non do the climbing, as well as the women collect as well as ship the fruit to the market. The extracting as well as processing of palm oil is commonly done past times women, who retain the palm kernels. Also, raffia palms may live tended past times men, but are commonly owned past times women, as well as are used to brand wine, mats, as well as poles.
Land Tenure
With a strong emphasis on the patrilineage, the virile somebody members shape the dominant nucleus of the hamlet as well as receive got collective rights to its land. The lineage caput allocates the terra firma for farming amid its members on a yearly basis
Ibibio Kinship
Among the Ibibio, kinship is patrilineal (i.e descent is traced through the father) piece identify unit of measurement is polygynous. According to Ekong (1988) the Ibibio identify unit of measurement was initially patrilineal (upon marriage, a pair lives alongside or
close the husbands parents) as well as of late neolocal (married pair lives apart from their relatives)
Ibibio kinship construction is also something of a trinity. The Ibibio kinship trinity involves complex of norms involving ayeyin (grandchild), ukod (in-law) as well as imaan (blood brother). It provides dependable framework as well as serves as a pin of social relations amid Ibibio people living inwards as well as exterior Ibibioland. The enduring nature of this trinity amid Ibibios belies an assertion that the Ibibios are unusually receptive to invention from cultures which they come upward inwards contact (Esen 1982:4).
Socialization as well as Family units
Ibibio men as well as women are formally grouped into historic catamenia sets, the condition of which increases alongside seniority. They are informally established for youths roughly the historic catamenia of 10, as well as are formally recognized when its members are close 12 years of age. Members of the immature sets are given instruction inwards morality as well as native laws. To this end, historic catamenia sets role as self-disciplinary institutions as well as guardians of populace morality.
Ibibio kids from Akwa Ibom state
The basic identify unit of measurement (nnung) unit of measurement amid the Ibibio is the chemical compound (ekpuk). Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 chemical compound consists of the caput who is commonly the eldest male, his wives, siblings as well as other relatives inwards the household. The chemical compound caput has jurisdiction over all the members of the household. However, he is subordinate to the caput of the extended family. The extended identify unit of measurement comprises of a combination of related compounds. This constitutes the extended identify unit of measurement group. The extended identify unit of measurement caput handles serious matters affecting the lineage piece the chemical compound caput handles purely domestic matters.
Furthermore, a combination of extended identify unit of measurement groups brand upward a clan which to a greater extent than often than non has a name, mutual dialect as well as custom, a totem as well as a ritual leader.
Political system
The Ibibio traditional society operates a “stateless society” which, according to Ekong (1988), is organized on the segmnetary unilineal principles. Citing Onwuejeogwu, Ekong describes a stateless society as i which lacks a centralized scheme of political organisation alongside a king.
Traditionally Ibibio society consists of communities that are made upward of Large Families alongside blood affinity each ruled past times their Constitutional as well as Religious Head known as the Obong Ikpaisong. The Obong Ikpaisong ruled alongside the Mbong Ekpuk (Head of the Families)which together alongside the Heads of the Cults as well as Societies constitute the 'Afe or Asan or Esop Ikpaisong' (Traditional Council or Traditional Shrine or Traditional Court'). The decisions or orders of the Traditional Council or the Obong Ikpaisong were enforced past times members of the Ekpo or Obon society who human activity as messengers of the spirits as well as the armed forces as well as police push clit of the Community. Ekpo members are e'er masked when performing their policing duties, as well as although their identities are almost e'er known, fearfulness of retribution from the ancestors prevents most people from accusing those members who transcend their social boundaries, effectively committing police push clit brutality. Membership is opened upward to all Ibibio males, but i must receive got access to wealth to displace into the politically influential grades. The Obon Society alongside its strong enticing traditional musical prowess, alongside pop acceptability, openly executes its mandates alongside musical procession as well as pop participation past times Members which comprises children, youth, adults as well as really brave elderly women.
Religious belief
Ibibio believe that in that location is a Supreme beingness called Abasi whoc created all things including the gods (ndem) to who He gives accuse of the dissimilar aspect of human affairs. Thus in that location is ndem isiong (fertility goddess) to aspect after terra firma fertilitity, ndem ndua (market god) to protect the involvement of those who purchase as well as sell at the market,etc.
Below the gods are unincarnated spirits similar eka abasi, the spirit woman parent that looks after children. Then in that location are spirits of the ancestors whom they worship too.
Ibibio union rites
Marriage is regarded as a complex of social, political, religious, as well as economical systems inwards Ibibio terra firma (Udo, 1983). It covers various aspects of the society as identify unit of measurement as well as community relationships, sexual activity as well as sexuality, inheritance, as well as fifty-fifty political powerfulness (as rulership peculiarly inwards the past times resided inwards specific as well as designated families both the secular as well as the religious).
Ibibio couple
Betrothal before the historic catamenia of xiv used to live common. Marriage payments were made to the prospective bride's parents. The union payment was shared amid the bride's kin, alongside the virile somebody parent keeping the largest share. The union payment traditionally had to live completed before the union could live consummated; it was supplemented past times services rendered past times the hubby to the bride's father.
Given the fact that union is a fulcrum inwards Ibibio society, in that location are elaborate ceremonies on it before, during, as well as after the formal handing over of a miss or adult woman to her suitor. Here is the process:
When a human being proposes to a adult woman as well as of course of study the adult woman accepts, they are as well as then required to go as well as regard the woman’s parents, this is called “Ndidiong Ufok” which agency “ to know the house” of the lady. You could telephone phone it an introduction. During this, non many people are expected to go alongside the groom just close 3 - 4 people would live okay, but if to a greater extent than people are to go as well as then the bride’s identify unit of measurement must live informed of the number of people that volition live showing upward so they tin can brand proper arrangements, especially as the identify unit of measurement of the bride is mandated past times custom to ready as well as welcome the members of the groom’s identify unit of measurement similar special guests.
Nollywod actress Nse Ikpe-Etim, an Ibibio native from Akwa Ibom province inwards her union attire
The adjacent pace is the ‘knocking of the door’; the appointment for the “Nkong Udok/ Nkong Usong (depending on the dialect)” is laid after the ‘Ndidiong Ufok’,So after the identify unit of measurement of the groom has gotten to know the theatre of the miss as well as then they tin can come upward as well as knock on the door as well as officially inquire for the lady’s hand.
The knocking on the door is to a greater extent than or less the same as inwards the Yoruba tradition or the Igbo tradition, where identify unit of measurement of the groom comes as well as asks for the miss that they are looking for inwards the theatre as well as inwards plow collect the "list" provided past times the Father as well as elders of the girls identify unit of measurement .
In the Ibibio tradition the grooms identify unit of measurement has to purchase some things for the identify unit of measurement of the bride, hence the list, which would include things for each fellow member of the lady’s identify unit of measurement from the youngest to the oldest. The solar daytime that the things or items on the listing are to live delivered is called the ‘Uno Mpo’, which agency to “to give something”. Traditionally, this listing is a way of compensating the identify unit of measurement of the lady past times the identify unit of measurement members of the groom’ for talking away a fellow member of their identify unit of measurement thus reducing the number of hands that would receive got helped inwards the farm or alongside cooking as well as taking tending of the house. Of course of study today, in that location are no farms to assist out alongside but inwards most cases, but tradition is tradition.
Ibibio bride`s arrival
The appointment of the delivery of the items is commonly settled on at the ‘Nkong Udok/ Nkong Usong’.
The adjacent thing to follow all these events is the traditional wedding. This is where all the pilus as well as vesture that you lot would in all likelihood receive got seen inwards pictures or videos are donned; the bride as well as groom wearing clothing inwards total traditional regalia sometimes similar a prince or princess (depending on their ain tastes of course) etc. The ceremony takes identify to a greater extent than or less similar the Igbo Traditional wedding, from the hiding of the groom to the married adult woman looking for him alongside the drinkable given to her past times her parents to offering him.
All these events are handled according to the handbag size of the families involved, as well as inwards recent times, people take to do all or some of these events together as well as sometimes skip some parts all together inwards a bid to cut the length of the whole ceremony.
Ibibio couple
Initiation Rites
For the Ibibio the has 2 aspects-visible, that is the domain of ordinary human experience: as well as invisible, the domain of God, the gods as well as spirits. Human life passes through these 2 domains inwards a cycle; the adult becomes aged as well as passes into the world of invisible to live re-incarnated as well as born i time to a greater extent than as a babe into the world of visible. Birth as well as decease are thus moments inwards the life cycle. As a resultant the Ibibio has a sacrifice for periodic phases of the life cycle. These are:
Sacrifice at naming ceremony (usio enying)
Sacrifice at puberty (Mbopo/nkuho)
Sacrifice at death.
There are also initiations for sure high ranking personalities inwards Ibibio society. These includes:
Sacrifice at Chietaincy initiation
Sacrifice at initiation into cultic associations
Sacrifice at initiation into the guild of diviners (abia idiong)
Mbopo Rites
Mbopo also known as “fattening house” ritual is an Ibibio women’s ritual that points to a greater resident civilization that heralds ceremonial seclusion, corpulence, as well as ornamental extravagance as principal components inwards woman somebody identity construction. It is i of several exclusive women’s institutions found inwards southeast Nigeria. Mbopo translates as “the fattened girl,” referring to the i who has been secluded to ekuk mbopo, or “fattening house.” The term mbopo also embodies her collective physical care for of confinement, beautification, fattening, as well as circumcision, the final of which is a physical care for that was traditionally considered as a ceremonial rite for a immature woman, ensuring her purity, sexual appeal, marital fortune, as well as successful pregnancies.
Specifically, the emergence of a “fat as well as beautiful” miss from a regulated catamenia of seclusion inwards ekuk mbopo is paramount for the sustenance of a community. Yet, of equal value to her appearance is that she live imbued alongside strength as good as the science required to handgrip the unrelenting rigors of womanhood.
Mbopo ritual is concerned alongside woman somebody corporeality, especially alongside honour to physical modifications to beautify that empower the initiate. In add-on to weight gain, ceremonial transformations include body adornment alongside oils as well as dyes, tattooing, cicatrizations(or body “scarring”), massages, elaborate hairstyles, as well as inwards rare instances, tooth-filing. The “fattening house” is an educational boudoir where an mbopo initiate learns the secrets of womanhood. It is the conceptual platform on which details close sex, motherhood,
as well as child-rearing are transferred from elderberry hamlet women to the mbopo. Furthermore, she learns the local songs, dances, as well as artistic practices similar wall painting, pyrography on cloths as well as calabash vessels, as well as the creation of ceremonial fans.
Seclusion is traditionally linked to performative demonstrations of dearest as well as tending through populace displays of opulence. The initiate’s catamenia of confinement, which may final from a pair of weeks to as long as 2 or 3 years, depends largely on the wealth of her family. The success of her confinement is measured inwards her
weightiness, radiance, sanguinity, as well as overall demeanor. Additionally, her seclusion is inwards component a metaphor: the physical separation from her identify unit of measurement as well as friends during confinement represents her hereafter post-seclusion condition as an elite woman, who is laid apart from others inwards her community.
For to a greater extent than on Ibibio sacrificial rites click on this link:-Sacrificial-Worship-in-Ibibio-Traditional-Religion.pdf
Proverbs
The fine art of using proverbs inwards spoken communication is characteristic of people all over the world as well as the Ibibio are no exception to this fine art (Okon, 2004, p. 107). In every culture, proverbs are communicated inwards colourful as well as bright linguistic communication to demo the values for members to follow. For examples:
1) Ubok mʌm, ubok mʌm etuud ukpa, inwards togetherness,any obstruction tin can live removed. “Ukpa” Iroko is a sort of tree. The worldview is reflected inwards the environs through the utilization of i of the trees – Iroko – inwards the wood to demo how heavy the tree is. In spite of its weight as it is inwards reality,the Ibibio believe that when people dearest as well as appreciate each other, together they tin can displace the body of the Ukpa (Iroko) tree. This same vie is also illustrated below.
2) Ubok Otʌk edem, edem otʌk ubok.The manus is needed to scrub the dorsum create clean just as theback as needs to scrub the manus clean. The world view hither is that assist is reciprocal. As a group, they can
overcome whatever obstacle; if you lot demand others to assist you,you as demand to assist others too.
3) Eto idaaha ikpon ikap-pa akai.A tree cannot brand a wood or no human being is an island. This maxim uses linguistic communication to explore the African poeticlandscape alongside its flora as well as fauna. This is achieved through the utilization of words similar “eto” tree as well as akai forest.
The tree symbolizes human being as well as this maxim farther strengthens the concept of togetherness. Another worldview or reality inwards life amid the Ibibio is that of forewarning. The maxim below shows this belief:
4) Edue ukod akpa iton. Be watchful lest you lot autumn (die). This maxim bringslanguage into the province of symbolism. The symbolism is that of warning. The alert calls for carefulness, otherwise decease volition live the halt result. Most if non all cultures receive got this world view – “to live fore-warned is to live fore-armed”.
In Ibibio culture, in that location are proverbs which bargain alongside piece of work ethics,
5) Owo akpaniko ikpaaha bion. An honest human being volition e'er bring out piece of work to do.
6) Bia ayin unwene itaaha ikan. The labours of human being volition bear fruit.
7) Ubok anam enyin ama. What the manus does the oculus likes.
As already observed the Ibibio worldview emphasizes the code of beingness honest at piece of work which inwards plow results inwards to a greater extent than piece of work as well as appreciation. The Ibibio worldview uses indigenous nutrient item similar bia-“yam” which is believed to live a production of the hard piece of work of man. The Ibibio civilization has the proverb-riddle which combines the properties of maxim as well as riddles. As Umoh (2007, p. 9) notes, the components of the maxim riddle
comprise: Question, answer, tone as well as rhythm. The next proverb-riddle reverberate the worldview of the Ibibio.
8) a. Oduok nton ke nton akeene. He who throws the ash, is the i that the ash follows
b. asua ayin owo inieeghe ake omo. He who hates some other person’s kid does non have
his own.
This maxim shows the worldview where whatever i does volition sure enough boomerang. It calls to hear the
global belief inwards the law of karma or retribution. The maxim provides insight into the life style, the beliefs, the
environs as well as the fauna of the Ibibio. We debate that proverbs are curt statements that portray the intellectual as well as communicative contents amid the speakers inwards a spoken communication community (Okon, 2004, p. 106) as well as inwards this instance, the Ibibio. Read all close Ibibio proverbs here:http://books.google.com.gh/books
Ibibio people inwards USA
Death as well as Afterlife
Worship of the ancestors is a really of import component of Ibibio religious culture. Sacrifices are often made at the ancestral shrine, which is kept at the theatre of the eldest fellow member of the lineage group. Disgruntled ancestors may wander amid the living, causing damage until the ceremony of Obio Ekpo ("world of the dead") is performed so that the spirit tin can acquire inwards the world of the dead. The Ibibio receive got a concept of skillful ( eti ) as well as evil/bad ( idiok). Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 somebody has 2 souls, the immortal soul ( ukpong ) as well as the animal-linked soul ( ukpong ikot), which tin can alive inwards lions, leopards, bush pigs, antelopes, as well as pythons. The latter also dies at death, whereas the sometime is reincarnated or becomes a malevolent ghost troubling the living.
Source:http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Institue%20of%20African%20Studies%20Research%20Review/1992v8n1&2/asrv008001&2007.pdf
“Ekpo society masks of the Ibibio.”
The society known as Ekpo Nyoho (or, inwards its shortened form, Ekpo) is the most of import as well as widely distributed of 3 surreptitious societies silent active inwards various Ibibio towns inwards southeastern Nigeria. In the absence of a centralized political state, Ekpo regulated social, legal, political, as well as economical matters inwards its community during precolonial times (Atmore & Stacey 1979:77). As instruments of social control, its masks were carved to heighten a sense of fearfulness as well as mystery (Jones 1984:183).
Ekpo masquerades
Before the advent of colonialism inwards the early on 1900s, hamlet authorities functioned on 2 overlapping structural levels; it silent does so today, though to a lesser extent. The foremost plane consists of the civil machinery of traditional patriarchal authority. The caput of the identify unit of measurement rules his immediate household. Beyond him is the caput of the extended family, who hears complaints as well as settles disputes betwixt families united past times ties of kinship as well as living side past times side inwards the town. He is concerned alongside the everyday direction of the community, alongside rules as well as customs governing conduct. These town as well as identify unit of measurement chiefs often telephone phone upon elders to assist create upward one's hear of import matters during town councils, where opinions are openly expressed.
The surreptitious societies, constituting the 2d plane of government, are concerned alongside crises as well as emergencies affecting the town collectively. It was on this level, devised to bargain alongside powerful socially disruptive or dysfunctional forces, that the mask found its special place.
Ekpo Nyoho is the principal surreptitious society inwards most Ibibio towns as well as villages. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 2d society, Ekpo Ekong, is active only inwards Ibiono, where it is of foremost importance. The 3rd society, Ekpe, has been described inwards particular past times Nair (1972:14-20). Though found inwards all Ibibio towns it is of foremost importance only inwards Opobo as well as Oron as well as amid the Efik of Calabar as well as the Ogoja of Cross River State. Ekpe is also practiced inwards many Igbo towns, as well as beyond.
The Ekpo society serves as an enforcement arm of hamlet government, though it plays a smaller role inwards this regard than it did inwards the past. It provides an outlet for youths as well as men to channel their energies into activities which are beneficial to the community. During the Ekpo season, which lasts from June to December, the society exerts an enormous influence on people's lives. For example, on the days when the masks come upward out, farming activity is suspended. Women as well as nonmembers cannot go to the marketplace or perform activities exterior their homes: food, water, as well as firewood must receive got been obtained inwards advance. When they are non patrolling the hamlet border or assembling at the hamlet shrine to sing as well as dance, society members also rest at home.Quarrels as well as fights are prohibited. Visitors to the hamlet are thoroughly checked past times Ekpo to brand sure their missions are harmless. Stealing carries peculiarly heavier penalties during the season; close l years ago, the penalty was death, carried out past times Ekpo.
Masks are used past times each of the 3 surreptitious societies but are most mutual inwards Ekpo Nyoho, where human face masks alongside raffia hanging downward to the waist are the most characteristic type. If a dominion is violated, the main sends masked characters to enforce sanctions. The say-so as well as legitimacy of these characters are due partly to their established history as well as partly to imagery as well as symbols carefully manipulated to arouse fearfulness as well as and to create an impression of the masks' invincibility. Without the mystique surrounding hem, masks as well as costumes are just objects. The physical characteristics of a masquerade depicted inwards the carving breathe artistic life into the mystique. For the purposes of this paper, nosotros shall focus our attending upon the Ekpo Nyoho society as well as its masks.
Ekpo Nyoho
Ancestors (ekpo) tin can protect their relatives as well as children on earth. Masked spirits human activity as intermediaries who relay messages from the living to the ancestors, as well as also ship instructions as well as warnings from the ancestors to the living. Only the spirits of heroic men are portrayed as messengers of the Ekpo society. It is non the wandering, restless ghosts who are worshiped, but the skillful ancestors who receive got reached the spirit land. These unseen ancestors are component of the identify unit of measurement as well as are interested inwards its welfare. They are invited past times hollo to the identify unit of measurement repast through libation as well as prayer. Sacrifices to them demonstrates filial piety as well as love.
Despite the characterization of Ekpo as a "secret society," its activities as well as functions are non shrouded inwards mystery. Nonmembers, including women, are fully aware of its role as well as functions, because every villager is dependent to its adjudications as well as code of conduct during the Ekpo season. However, only members participate inwards the rituals as well as practices which prepare them for their role. The main secrets are the serial of code words as well as trip the calorie-free fantastic steps that a fellow member learns when he goes through initiation. These give him the correct to move within as well as exterior his hamlet during the season. When a traveler encounters a masked Ekpo, he is challenged to utter these words as well as to perform the trip the calorie-free fantastic steps. Failure to do so results inwards arrest.
Figure 3
Through Ekpo Nyoho, the ancestors supervise the activities of their descendants, advise them close conduct, as well as protect them from their enemies. These duties are performed through v masked supernatural figures who are representatives of the ancestors. Akpan Ekpo is the caput of the society--the wise old leader (akpan), a warrior, as well as the principal mediator betwixt the living as well as the dead. He is supported past times Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia, who ship out his directions. In the past, members of Ekpo Nyoho who were initiated into the adult grades of Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia had to live neat warriors who could pierce a rolling orangish alongside an arrow from a considerable distance. According to oral history, decease was the penalty for failure inwards this of import trial. The 3 senior figures are served past times Udo Ekpo as well as Ukpaka Ekpo, who are younger as well as non so violent or uncontrolled. These v characters are divided into 4 grades, alongside Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia both beingness inwards the 2d grade, below Akpan Ekpo but higher upward Udo Ekpo (third grade) as well as Ukpaka Ekpo (fourth grade).
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 somebody demand non make through the lower grades to accomplish the total adult roles of Adiaha Unak or Nkubia. He may purchase his way into the senior level, but the cost of initiation is really high. Consequently, despite the importance of the society many men rest uninitiated fifty-fifty into the lower grades through early on adulthood. In principle, to acquire accepted as adult members of the community they should live fully initiated before marriage.
Members of the senior grades are expected to live tough, non only against internal lawbreakers but peculiarly against external enemies.As of late as lxx or fourscore years ago, disputes over farmland would often Pb to intervillage wars as well as the devastation of crops through raids, especially on contested land. Though less frequent, such disputes silent take place.
Hostile encounters are most probable to occur at hamlet boundaries, where i Ekpo masquerader powerfulness challenge some other to cross a line that he has drawn inwards the earth. If the 2d Ekpo refuses to cross, he is taunted as a coward. During a create out betwixt 2 masked Ekpo, society members on both sides must lay downward all their weapons (guns, machetes, bows as well as arrows). The dispute is settled through wrestling, the most pop traditional Ibibio sport. Whichever masquerader wrestles his opponent to the reason as well as removes the other's mask is the victor The loser surrenders his mask--or he may receive got to pay a cost to live allowed to maintain it as well as homecoming home.
The hamlet whose Ekpo masquerader has been defeated endures neat shame. Those inwards the victorious hamlet rejoice because they receive got "taken a head"--for it is the "head," the human face mask itself (iwot ekpo), that has the power. Captured masks are often displayed on hamlet shrines as emblems of the victors' strength as well as bravery; they are not, however, visible to women (though women powerfulness live told that a caput has been taken). "Head taking" has occurred often within the past times x years.
The Masks of Ekpo Nyoho
When a human being dons an Ekpo mask, he loses his human identity as well as assumes the identity of an ancestral spirit. He may utilization a mask that belonged to the deceased ancestor or receive got i made that depicts the ancestor's physical as well as heroic qualities. Masks tin can also portray pop hamlet heroes of the past, right away idolized for their bravery or other achievements. In addition, members of the society receive got masks made whose physical features resemble their own.
The mask, its edges strung alongside raffia that hangs to the waist, is commonly worn alongside a knee-length raffia skirt. The only parts of the body non covered are the lower legs, which are painted alongside charcoal powder, as well as the hands as well as forearms. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 human being must live able to have on a mask alongside ease piece performing his assigned role. It is hard to imagine people fighting piece wearing them, but the masks receive got several features that brand this possible. Many of them are carved from a tree known as ukot, whose calorie-free wood makes them comfortable to wear. In addition, the mask is securely fastened alongside a rope at the dorsum of the head. Further back upward is offered past times a curt stick, commonly fitted horizontally across the within of the mask, which the wearer clenches alongside his teeth.
There is only i Akpan Ekpo inwards a village. As the caput of the Ekpo Nyoho society, he may live called upon past times the main to assist if people inwards the hamlet create out amid themselves or if they reject to pay sure dues or taxes. He tin can inquire society members to patrol sure farm roads to forestall people from stealing, as well as he may telephone phone out the fearsome Nkubia if in that location is conflict alongside some other village. Akpan Ekpo is accountable to the main for the behavior of society members, a serious responsibleness since Ekpo masks receive got been used to hide the identity of those committing crimes.
Each elderberry who performs the role bases the depiction of this masked spirit on i of his ancestors. The masks are commonly carved to resemble specific individuals betwixt the ages of 50 as well as threescore who had a reputation for upholding monastic enjoin as well as justice--wise as well as principled, but also tough as well as uncompromising, men alongside the courage to create out social deviance within the limits of traditional rules. In add-on to physical prowess as well as courage, Akpan Ekpo is known to receive got a special powerfulness to human face upward evil.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 human being performing Akpan Ekpo must receive got these same qualities. He is commonly chosen exclusively on the reason of powerfulness from amid a grouping of elders who receive got attained the championship of idiong. These elders are distinguished past times headbands, also represented on most Akpan Ekpo masks, or past times circular signs on their temples. The idiong championship indicates that a human being has achieved the spiritual powerfulness that enables him to command evil spirits as well as to mediate betwixt the worlds of the ancestors as well as the living.(6) Unlike traditional chieftaincy titles, which rotate amid leading families, Akpan Ekpo is appointed past times the main for life, or until he is no longer able to fulfill the role.
Akpan Ekpo masks are notable for their variation. The only mutual characteristic of those I collected is the headband, symbolic of idiong, which is decorated inwards 3 of the 4 examples. The individualized features of Akpan Ekpo commonly limited a royal, serene temperament (Figs. 1, 3). (Figs. 1 as well as 3 omitted) Occasionally, however, he is portrayed as tough, cynical, or mean, to remind people how he regards wrongdoers. The graphic symbol of i Akpan Ekpo mask I collected was seen past times my informants as an evil old human being whose unquestioned say-so derives partly from his reputation for unpredictability, Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 2d mask was characterized as an "uncompromising as well as stubborn old man, but fair." Another was "tough, royal, as well as fair." The final (Fig. 2) was said to live "tough, mean, as well as brutal." (Fig. 2 omitted)
Adiaha Unak ("Fearsome First Daughter") (Figs. 4-6) enforces monastic enjoin within the hamlet nether the command of Akpan Ekpo. (Figs. 4-6 omitted) Usually many Adiaha Unak appear at the same time. Less individualized than Akpan Ekpo, this character's macabre epitome is typically conveyed through physical deformity. Carrying weapons such as bows as well as arrows, swords, machetes, as well as guns, they correspond the spirits of strong as well as heroic men who were killed at a immature age, maybe inwards war. Adiaha Unak ship many protective talismans on their masks as well as roughly their necks, arms, as well as legs. To have on this mask is the destination of most immature men who belong to Ekpo; commonly 20-45 years of age, they are the bravest as well as most able bodied members of the society. The mask inwards Figure 6 holds a manilla inwards its mouth, a symbol of bravery. Introduced inwards the sixteenth century, manillas were i of the early on forms of coin amid the Ibibio (Eyo 1979:61). Most important, they refer to i of the early on functions of Ekpo as an agent of the chief: the collection of taxes.
Nkubia is similar to Adiaha Unak but functions primarily inwards conflicts betwixt villages. He is regarded as beingness almost mad--completely uncontrollable as well as thus peculiarly dangerous. His madness is believed to live partially derived from the tree from which the mask is carved. The nkubia tree is the domicile identify of the spirits of youths who died accidentally. According to divination, these spirits, unsettled because of the mode of death, rose from the grave to reside inwards the tree.
Akpan Ekpo calls upon Nkubia only inwards times of neat crisis, when the hamlet is seriously threatened. He is an added weapon, a demo of strength. Society members, especially those from some other village, would human face upward Adiaha Unak but non Nkubia. Even other masked Ekpo fearfulness him. In the past times he was e'er accompanied past times Akpan Ekpo or Adiaha Unak, often tethered alongside a long rope. Akpan Ekpo controls Nkubia through intricate incantations as well as powerful charms.
This masked graphic symbol is infrequently seen today; some years he does non appear at all. Perhaps it is because in that location are fewer intervillage conflicts inwards which he plays his principal role, but it is also truthful that he is unpopular: people fearfulness that they volition take on the madness associated alongside him.
Nkubia masks are intended to live fifty-fifty to a greater extent than frightening than those of Adiaha Unak. In add-on to exposed teeth (Fig. 7), they may also receive got the neat fangs of a ferocious beast of the forest. (Fig. 7 omitted) The hurting of sticks driven into his human face especially induces Nkubia into madness (Fig. 8). (Fig. 8 omitted)
In contrast to Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia, Udo Ekpo, which serves the senior grades (do agency "second"), is friendly as well as benign. He commonly goes out lonely as well as is meant non to harass people but rather to reinforce Adiaha Unak's demands for law as well as order. This role is commonly played past times an older man child who volition acquire an Adiaha Unak. There are liable to live a fair number of this junior mask inwards a hamlet at whatever i time.
The faces of Udo Ekpo are to a greater extent than naturalistic as well as fifty-fifty child-like than those of the preceding characters (Fig. 9). (Fig. ix omitted) Their polish faces as well as opened upward eyes create an impression of innocence. Hairstyles are emphasized. The minor heads sometimes carved atop the masks of Nkubia as well as Udo Ekpo are non markers of degree or rank, but rather are protective images that symbolize the inseparable connecter betwixt the living as well as the dead.
Ukpaka Ekpo (called Ekong past times the Anang) is the entry role inwards the Ekpo society. The give-and-take ukpaka agency "useless person," i who is non really tough or quick-witted. Ukpaka Ekpo are servants who go out to beg coin as well as nutrient from everybody. The thespian tend to live a picayune younger than those who play Udo Ekp--usually boys 11-13 years of age. Nonmembers, the uninitiated, as well as fifty-fifty women may come upward into unopen contact alongside Ukpaka Ekpo. Like Udo Ekpo's, the human face of Ukpaka Ekpo is naturalistic as well as childlike, alongside wide-open eyes, but it is maybe fifty-fifty less sophisticated inwards appearance as well as graphic symbol (Fig. 10). (Fig. 10 omitted)
Ekpo society masks acquire to a greater extent than particularized as the mask wearer matures. The characters of Udo Ekpo as well as Ukpaka Ekpo masks are virtually unformed. Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia masks exhibit greater individuality Akpan Ekpo masks are the most individualized, clearly portraying the personality of the wearer.
Carving the Mask
The spirit of an ancestor may live represented past times many masks. Different masks may portray the same spirit as angry, serene, or vigorous. The appearance also varies according to the role to live played. Although these masks are highly individualized, they must convey the full general theme or symbolism of the owner's grade. For example, the personality of Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia must live angry, fierce, or fearsome. How this aspect is expressed is upward to each artist. The piece of work of a skillful Ibibio carver results from the interplay of the client's view of his ain features as well as strengths as well as the artist's perception of his client's personal characteristics. The artist, who himself must maintain the epitome of the institution, is non an impartial judge.
The creative liberty of Ibibio carvers is peculiarly evident inwards the masks of Akpan Ekpo, each of which has a distinctive character. Since the men who play Akpan Ekpo tin can to a greater extent than often than non afford to pay higher prices, nosotros may presume that these masks are amid the best that Ibibio artists could produce. Those who perform Akpan Ekpo are respected men inwards the community, as well as artists consequently take requests for their masks to a greater extent than seriously than they do the requests for masks of lesser rank. They seek to brand the portrayal reverberate the qualities as well as reputation of the owners as much as possible.
Not every hamlet has a carver, but a unmarried hamlet may boast several. Today most Ibibio carvers of Ekpo masks alive inwards Ikot Ekpene, an Anang town. Though a mask is sometimes included inwards the initiation fee, a society fellow member must commonly committee one. He pays one-half the cost when the monastic enjoin is placed as well as the remaining one-half when the mask is ready to live picked up. The carver may attach raffia to the mask or pigment it alongside charcoal or river sediment (black), ochres or camwood (red), or kaolin (white). Alternatively the client may receive got this done past times some other artist. Most members larn to perform the mask alongside a raffia attachment.
The mask is strung alongside raffia at the get-go of each Ekpo season; during the off flavour it is hung, minus its fiber, on a identify unit of measurement shrine or a hamlet shrine inwards the sacred bush, close the identify where Ekpo sessions are held. No women or boys are supposed to go close them.(7) To appease the spirits of the masks, the native MD pours a libation of human or creature blood, chicken feathers, as well as xanthous ochre over the masks before they are used again.
With the exception of the Nkubia character, the sort of wood used for carving a mask is non fixed. The ukot (palm wine) tree, whose wood is really calorie-free inwards weight, is the most widely used, especially for large masks. Cork wood (Musanga smithii) is also often chosen. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 mask that volition receive got carved permanent particular requires a denser variety such as iroko (Chlorophora excelsa), ebony (Diopyros), or mahogany (Swietenia).
The woodcarver offers a sacrifice to the tree before felling it. Afterwards a chunk of wood is carried to an isolated hut where it is carved; the hut is inwards the bush close the hamlet shrine as well as off limits to nonmembers as well as women. The artist's conception of the mask is guided past times either an old mask to live duplicated or the client's verbal description. Most carvers piece of work without using whatever drawings. In the foremost stage of carving, machetes as well as chisels are used to petroleum out the features of the mask. In the 2d stage, the mask is dried slow to prepare its surface for smoothing alongside the ukouk leaf. Then, using a knife as well as scraper, the creative somebody carves the face, characteristic past times characteristic from top to bottom, as well as sands the piece. The adjacent pace is painting-and attaching headgear as well as raffia.
The mask is non consummate when it leaves the hands of the carver: it must live consecrated through rituals performed nether the supervision of Akpan Ekpo, which include libations to propitiate the ancestors as well as a sacrifice to the mask's newly adopted spirit.
Morality as well as the Masks
John Messenger examines the distinction betwixt good/beautiful (mfon) as well as ugly/evil (idiok) Ekpo masks (1973:121-23). According to Messenger, a deceased somebody who had led a good, moral life is represented past times a beautiful mask when he visits his family; as well as i who had led an evil life is impersonated past times an ugly mask. Messenger's explanation of the distinction betwixt skillful as well as evil is accurate. I receive got found, however, that the representation of these concepts inwards mask utilization is oriented to a greater extent than toward the thought of justice, which is the reason of Ibibio morality, than toward the ancestor's moral qualities. The human relationship betwixt Ekpo as well as the community does non depend significantly on how a mask looks but rather on whether the laws of the community receive got been obeyed or violated. When a masked Ekpo shoots a adult woman or a nonmember alongside his bow, it is non because the Ekpo is ugly or wild, but because these people receive got left their houses on an Ekpo day, which is viewed as an human activity of defiance as well as disrespect for authority. In assuming the spirit of the ancestors, the wearer of an Ekpo mask executes the collective wishes of the community's forefathers. If an private violates community morality, his activity causes concern to all forefathers inwards full general as well as to his ain ancestors inwards particular.
Thus each Ekpo carries messages of skillful volition for skillful behavior, as well as sick volition for wrongdoing. Its forbidding appearance warns of the unmistakable consequences of violation. In other words, the threat of evil is used to ensure good. Akpan Ekpo as well as the hamlet main utilization both beautiful as well as ugly masks as messengers. The masks' actions are specifically directed toward the maintenance of law as well as order. The hard problem for Akpan Ekpo is to regulate the excesses of Ekpo characters inwards the functioning of these duties. If, for example, an Ekpo enters a person's premises to harass or hurt someone, he is held accountable; Akpan Ekpo may fine him or suspend him from wearing his masks. From the inside, the society is a really disciplined organization.
The Mask Carver
Ultimately the artists who carve the masks are responsible for creating the psychological human relationship betwixt masked Ekpo as well as hamlet members. By calling upon sure widely recognized metaphors, the artists evoke the sentiments desired past times the members of the surreptitious society. They create images of fearfulness as a agency to command as well as manipulate the people. The intimidating behavior of mask wearers reinforces the artistic effort. On seeing characters similar Adiaha Unak or Nkubia, fifty-fifty from a distance, nonmembers of the society run for safety. Their appearance is a alert to every somebody inwards the hamlet to conduct inwards an orderly way or human face swift reprisal.
The creative somebody knows his people. He knows that they obey hamlet rules only if they fearfulness the consequences of disobedience. The masks must live frightening inwards monastic enjoin to invoke the threat of forcefulness as well as say-so necessary for the masked characters to maintain order. Artistic talent inwards such circumstances is measured past times the carver's success inwards accomplishing this artistic cum socially defined objective. The successful Ibibio carver also demonstrates that fine art is a universal language, or at to the lowest degree that metaphors of the Ibibio are shared past times non-Ibibio. When the latter regard Nkubia as well as Adiaha Unak masks as frightening or horrible, as well as then the creative somebody has made his point. His destination is for every viewer to react inwards just this manner.
Ekpo images of powerfulness as well as invincibility, as well as its symbols of retribution as well as punishment, are expressed as well as maintained through the works of the carvers. Upon their shoulders falls the social responsibleness of creating effective instruments for the maintenance of law as well as order. Their talent cannot live fully appreciated without agreement the history as well as cultural values of their community. In Ibibio, as inwards other parts of Africa, the people relate to many aspects of life through art.(http://academic.csuohio.edu/curnowk/curnowk/html/akpan.html)
The Dynamics of Music as well as Culture inwards Traditional Ibibio
Society of Nigeria
Ekpa, Aniedi E. - Department of Music, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom
State, Nigeria
E-mail: aniekpa2002@yahoo.com
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Traditional African music is music inwards oral tradition. It is that tradition inwards which music as well as aspects of music making are passed downward from generation to generation past times give-and-take of mouth, or through empirical observation as well as imitation. Fundamentally, it is a collective art, a communal belongings whose qualities are shared as well as experienced past times all members of the society. And until recently, this music was organized as an integral component of community life within the framework of recreational, social, cultural as well as political institutions. But it was never an object for trade; rather it catered for that aspect of traditional beliefs, ideas as well as wisdom.
However, the traditional Ibibio does non only regard music as a repository of traditional knowledge as well as beliefs, but also as a agency he tin can make out as well as found a constant, uninterrupted link alongside the spirit world as well as the supernatural.
To the Ibibio, music as well as life are inseparable. There is music for many of the activities of everyday life as good as music whose texts limited his attitudes to life: his hopes as well as fears, his thoughts as well as beliefs. Since music is so intimately jump alongside Ibibio worldview or cosmology, it as well as then becomes symbolic, spiritually strong as well as situational.
Occasional musical activities
It is a mutual exercise inwards traditional Ibibio society to comprise music into events of the life cycle. Because of the sacred nature of each event, the types as well as forms of music associated alongside each are socially restricted. Social musical activities limited the normative values of Ibibio people. Its enactment often reflects the occupational, secular as well as social beliefs of the people, as well as displays what the society values most.
Most Ibibio social musical activities concern themselves principally alongside the handling of themes of chastity as well as other adorable virtues. The theme of pride of maidenhood is treated inwards Mbopo (fattening) songs as well as dances. It centres on the chastity of the initiative prior to her marriage. Virginity as well as chastity of an Ibibio miss prior to her union bestow accolade as well as pride peculiarly on the girl, her parents, her fiancé as well as the community inwards general. But inwards this 21st century, what is the situation? Is it silent a virtue adorned as well as admired past times us?
Abang (pot) trip the calorie-free fantastic is performed during the ceremonial outing of the initiative from the fattening room (ufok mbopo), where she has been confined for months. While inwards this seclusion, she is fed alongside all the traditional delicacies that would brand her plump as a pot (abang), from which the hollo of the trip the calorie-free fantastic is derived. There are other initiative dances, which are performed on moonlit nights to welcome the novel Moon as good as for communal amusement as well as relaxation. Notable amid them is Abinsi dance. In the past, the trip the calorie-free fantastic was a traditional wooing trip the calorie-free fantastic inwards which immature men who were intending to hook upward alongside participated past times picking a trip the calorie-free fantastic mate from amid the woman somebody dancers. The miss of his alternative was commonly his intended hereafter wife. The virile somebody suitors attended the trip the calorie-free fantastic alongside lanterns, which was emblematic of the clear vision that would enable them pick the correct girl.
Nollywod actress Nse Ikpe-Etim, an Ibibio native from Akwa Ibom province inwards her union attire alongside her groom.
Throughout the performance, dialogue is never used. Every communication is past times miming as well as romantic gestures, which are easily understood as well as interpreted into verbal linguistic communication past times the audience. The theme of their songs centres on social control. When the songs are good rendered they serve as the community intelligence medium on of import happenings inwards as well as roughly the community. Comments may live made close a beautiful miss who is promiscuous; the aging adult woman who marries a human being many years her junior; the prominent human being inwards the hamlet who is a disciplinarian past times solar daytime as well as an armed robber past times night. Today, this trip the calorie-free fantastic is performed mainly for pleasance as well as relaxation.
Birth as well as union are celebrated alongside music inwards Ibibio society. Puberty musical groups perform at such ceremonies, treating texts of those songs as birds of passage‟ for the occasion.
In add-on to the events of the life cycle, in that location are social groups such as warrior organizations as well as guild groups, whose memberships are based on gender as well as age. The music performed past times these organizations is reflective of their roles inwards their respective societies. Ukwa, a state of war trip the calorie-free fantastic musical performance, is commonly staged to depict a band of traditional soldiers who protect the community from the enemies. Their songs are fast as well as animated. Before the commencement of the performance, the Ekong Ukwa masquerade
(war skull masquerade)- mkpokporo, inwards its dark flowing attire emerges from the nearby bush, holding a sudden machete inwards his hand. It as well as then runs circular town heading for the palace, singing inwards a recitative style inwards falsetto tones, to herald the arrival of the performers.
One of import thing alongside this functioning is that it cannot come upward to an halt without bloodshed. This makes the functioning really dreadful, but spectacular at the same time. As the functioning goes on, the drumming
becomes vigorous inwards tempo as well as sends the dancers into a province of excitement as well as valour, or to the extent that when they engage inwards mock- battle, they often sustain bodily injuries.
Ubom-Isong (land canoe), is a dance-music performed past times girls, reflective of a people whose problem is fishing. It is a miniature portrayal of the supplication to the ocean goddess to create total the line-fishing nets alongside seafood. Each of the dancers wears a hoop on the waist all of which are strung together to shape a boat. They sing as they engage inwards mock paddling:
Nkà mì éwàt údèng (My mates paddle canoe)
Àmì nwàt íkpók étò (I paddle bark of wood)
Àyà---ó (Aya---o)
Funeral dirges shape i of the social vocal repertoires. The organisation is commonly based on gender. When it is certified that a ruler is dead, the talking drum sends the message across to the people. Women's grouping sings their dirges separately nether a competent leader inwards the family. If no such leader is found, the identify unit of measurement hires someone as well as charges her alongside the responsibility.
Iban Isong trip the calorie-free fantastic is a women's trip the calorie-free fantastic past times a women‟s grouping responsible for fighting virile somebody chauvinism (Ndok ufok ebe) directed against their members. They rebuke as well as warn virile somebody members of the community against disrespect for their women folk. As they do non tolerate whatever indiscriminate utterance as well as blackmail of women past times men, whatever human being charged for such offense is given a fair trial past times the clan's council as well as penalized if found guilty. Subsequent involvement inwards the same offense is regarded as deliberate, as well as the society must seek redress. This they do past times visiting him nude at nighttime inwards his room, alongside singing as well as dancing. Writing close their activities inwards the society Udo submits:
This gild is really strong inwards the riverine areas of Ibibio, for
example, amid the Efik, Etoi, (sic) as well as Uruan etc, any
human being who abused a adult woman past times talking close her sexual
anatomy was deemed to receive got committed a grave crime
against Iban Isong Esit. The aggrieved adult woman commonly took
the case, privately to the Iban Isong Esit... (Udo,
1983:153).
When the solar daytime for punishing the culprit is fixed, the women start to spotter his motion until they brand sure that he has gone to slumber inwards his theatre that night. Then the women would surround his theatre as well as wake him up. When he comes out of his theatre to regard who was calling him, they would brand him sit down inwards a primal as well as conspicuous place, piece all of them strip themselves naked as well as stand upward before him, forcing the human being to aspect at them. Their faces as well as bodies painted dark as well as holding objects made inwards the shape of a woman's uterus in
their hands. They pelting curses upon him as well as telephone phone upon the gods as well as goddesses to kill him whenever he attempts to brand dearest alongside whatever woman. The human being who falls into this sort of problem commonly dies presently after the see past times these women.
Ebre trip the calorie-free fantastic was performed during the catamenia of harvesting of novel yams. Taken its hollo from a bulbous root of yam variety, women were allocated this yam to flora inwards their farms as well as took component inwards the celebration. Each adult woman was expected to go to the farm as well as harvest this yam as well as introduce it to her hubby inwards a symbolic way as a grade of respect. Members of this association were women alongside high plane of morality. Virgins only were allowed to bring together as members. No thief or adulterer was allowed to bring together the group. They were also concerned close indignities of women past times men.
Recreational music activities
Recreational music activities bask the largest variety of musical types as well as forms inwards Ibibio society. This is due to the fact that they are neither ritually nor ceremonially bound. They are performed non only for evening
entertainment, but also on other occasions of a festive or social nature. Songs as well as dances similar mkpok-eto, nsasak, nsa-isong etc, are all recreational musical performances.
Evening musical entertainments characteristic recreational songs performed past times the king's wives inwards the palace or court. As noted past times E. N. Amaku (1954), the king's wives perform praise songs for their hubby as they accompany themselves alongside household utensils as well as pollex pianos (mbutu). Each married adult woman supplies a phrase as well as punctuates it alongside her name.
Gilbert Rouget experienced something similar, at the Porto- Novo Palace. He writes:
... the courtroom music most often heard is performed by
the wives of the King .... At the palace as good as inwards these
dissimilar houses, the King‟s or Chief‟s wives, nether the
leadership of an elder, forms a grouping inwards accuse of ajogan
music. Four wives chosen from amid the youngest stand
inwards forepart of the others as well as sing as well as trip the calorie-free fantastic (Rouget,
1971:30).
Folktales close acts of bravery are commonly recounted. The men at the courtroom accompany the functioning alongside drums, piece the women trip the calorie-free fantastic as well as the King gives them drinks inwards appreciation. The king’s daughters, sisters as well as woman somebody house- helps are organized past times the wives to entertain the King alongside Ikpaya dance. Here, dancers wearing clothing inwards raffia costumes as well as sing as well as dance.
Most recreational songs could live heard at festivals as appendages to the main music lawsuit of the occasion. It is mutual to bring out them performed at funerals just to add together color as well as furnish amusement to the audience. Wherever recreational musical grouping is found, they are only in that location to entertain as well as receive got no ritual intentions.
The root of some recreational musical groups inwards Ibibioland is hard to describe piece their instrumental repertoire are non standardized, due to influences of acculturation from the neighbouring ethnic groups--Efik, Ibo, Quas, Ekoi, as well as Ejagham. There exists some amount of interchange betwixt these societies as well as dissimilar linguistic communication groups, especially inwards these areas where social interaction has been greatest as well as prolonged. Some recreational groups whose memberships are drawn from the ethnic grouping afore-mentioned receive got hybrid vocal texts, styles of dancing as well as drumming. The argue for this is non also far to seek, nor is this out of order. Of all the musical activities, recreational activities are the most prone to diffusion. The creation of musical types for recreational utilization is a continuous process. New types outpouring upward through the leadership of creative individuals whenever people start to acquire tired of the usual ones. It is inwards this sphere that innovations inwards the utilization of instruments, inwards styles of dancing, inwards styles of singing are foremost tried out.
Since recreational musical activities are non socially restricted, except where they are considered to live harmful or detrimental to the moral textile of the community or society, they are often transitory. They come upward as well as go alongside the craze of time. Musical types that are respectable as well as sufficiently attractive inwards style as well as content tend to live practiced over a long catamenia of time.
Incidental or functional musical activities
Incidental music activities inwards Ibibio community, similar inwards whatever other African society, are organized as a concurrent activity. That is, it serves as background music or catharsis for the execution of sure grouping activities as well as domestic chores such as grinding, pounding, mowing, mopping, nursing a babe alongside lullabies such as the following:
Éyén dáíyá ndíên, éyén dáíyá ndíên
Nkékà íkìbê mbá, ákâ mbá ásáká ìtá
Baby slumber now, babe slumber now
I went to pluck pear, but pear is non ripe
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 skillful babe sitter is commonly praised inwards lullabies
During informal story telling sessions, children as well as parents alike sing songs to relax as well as make the evening. Fishermen sing piece mending their nets piece farmers sing to accompany their piece of work routine. Individuals who sit down inwards a marketplace identify or walk on the street to hawk their wares salve their boredom or sun--burnt passion alongside music. Below is a typical fishermen‟s song:
Sóng úbók wàt ìnyàng (Row fast, row fast)
Sóng úbók wàt ìnyàng (Row fast, row fast)
Ké édìm kédí-ó-ó-ó-ó (Rain is coming-o-o-o-o)
Sóng úbók wàt ìnyàng (Row fast, pelting is coming)
Ké ‘dìm kédí (is coming)
Sometimes the texts of songs may non necessarily reverberate the particular piece of work beingness undertaken; for functional songs comprehend a broad make of topics such as self-pity, death, rivalry, hope, disappointment, sadness, love, theft, poverty as well as so on. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 adult woman who is mowing may sing a vocal that satires some other adult woman who was caught stealing.
Ritual-Ceremonial musical activities
Every faith needs a way of affirming its fundamental spiritual, philosophical as well as cultural principles which receive got been handed downward inwards writing or past times give-and-take of oral fissure over hundreds of years. This is necessary if the deeper sense demanded of a faith is to proceed to live fulfilled as well as the faith itself is to proceed to be as a holistic scheme within a physical care for of social development.
The consciousness of ritual/ceremonial musical activities inwards Ibibio land is based on shared ideas, which concern both the interpretations of its religious thought as well as the concrete realization thereof inwards ritual situations. This as well as then expresses itself as cultural manifestations inwards music, trip the calorie-free fantastic as well as linguistic communication or code. The private elements of such manifestations-the repertoire, musical instruments as well as terminology, acquire inwards possible for „outsiders‟ to recognize its members for the purpose of identification or differentiation.
Ritual musical types are the most restrictive of all. As mentioned above, it is a agency through which the private or grouping may reaffirm as well as re-enact the events of antiquity. In a typical ritual situation, the grouping stands naked as well as unashamed, as it were before its gods, goddesses, ancestors, woman parent Earth as well as the elemental forces. Most ritual activities are two-fold: private as well as public.
Private rituals are restricted to members of the priesthood as well as designated elders of the community as well as may utilization picayune or no music. For instance, when a King (Obong) wants to worship his personal god or pay homage to the clan‟s ancestral spirits, only the palace priests as well as main drummer are allowed to live present.
This is a ritual occasion for personal as well as private rituals, as well as sacerdotal observances that do non require the total participation of a ritual assembly; for these rituals are concerned alongside the affirmation of Obong’s structural
relationships alongside the supernatural. Ritual materials-songs, symbolic utilization of musical instruments, dances, incantations, prayers, as well as other activities are considered as classified knowledge, which cannot live found or placed at populace domain. For at no fourth dimension inwards the long history of mankind has such stuff been made accessible to non-initiates or fifty-fifty available for study as well as analysis. At the plane of ritual functioning nosotros are considering, the materials relate to this grouping at the most profound levels of their being.
It must non live ruled out that the selection of as well as utilization of music may depend to a large extent on the sort of rite as well as whether it is conceived as private or public. For in that location are customary rites that shape component of the normal behaviour, rites incorporated into celebrations as well as ceremonies, including confirmatory
as well as status-marking ceremonies, kinship ceremonies as well as commemorative festivals as good as rituals of worship. On the alternative of ritual materials, Nketia affirms that:
Since the symbolic transformation that takes identify inwards ritual
is constituted past times activity which draws on sound, kinesic and
visual codes, music which heightens the intensity of
emotion generated past times a rite or integrates the aural, the
kinesic as well as the visual similarity enhances the ritual
process. Accordingly, the music for a ritual occasion may
include non only contemplative music such as chants and
other music for listening, but also music that stimulates
personal involvement inwards a ritual occasion through
participation as well as interaction (Nketia, 1984:112).
Ritual activities such as annual harvest or commemorative festivals, deification of gods, warding off of evil influences inwards the community, are considered populace as well as members of the community are required to participate. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 sort of shared knowledge as well as sense takes identify here, although the forms as well as types of musical activities identified alongside such rituals may live socially restricted. Based on the particular ritual beingness performed, the alternative of musical instruments as well as vocal texts must reverberate the significance of the occasion. In most cases, the musical instruments are considered to live the physical representations of the gods beingness worshipped as well as are accordingly revered as such. Such god as Fri-Obukpong, which literary translated agency „blow the horn‟, is induced past times the audio of horn for its affective presence. It is for this argue that ritual drums used inwards Ekpe, Obon as well as Ekpo cults often create possession, as the gods are akin to the audio of these instruments.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 similar sense is reported amid the Shona of Zimbabwe, where ritual events called bira devoted to the ancestors are held periodically. The principal musical instrument played on such occasions is the plucked idiophone called mbira dza vadzimu. Paul Berliner reports that:
In the context of the bira, the people believe the mbira to
receive got the powerfulness to projection its audio into the heavens,
bridging the world of the living as well as the world of the spirits
as well as thereby attracting the attending of the ancestors. In the
hands of skillful musicians the mbira is able to push clit spirits
downward to Earth to possess mediums (Berliner, 1978:190).
Musical instruments, which are used for these performances are considered to live the physical representations as well as characteristics of the gods beingness worshipped. Such musical instruments similar horn are used past times ndem priests as a telephone phone to worship. Mmurua (ritual rattle) as well as Ekomo Ekpe (ekpe peel drum) are used inwards Ekpe musical performances only.There is a really sparse line of demarcation betwixt ritual as well as ceremonial musical activities inwards Ibibio society. The ceremonial musical activities may live divided into 2 categories. The foremost consists of musical types used for populace rites, which may live observed as a follow-up to consummate surreptitious rites.
When a King (Obong) is to live installed, populace rites involving music for enthronement are performed before all to witness as well as participate. If the functioning rites are without whatever interruption from the participants or the gods, the Obong is taken into the sacred sleeping room for the surreptitious component of the rites. At this point, the grouping relates to the spirit world through high-ranking priests as well as traditional leaders, who are regarded as the representatives of the spiritual forces. They perform the remaining ceremonial songs as well as dances until the whole ceremony is completed.
Since traditional leaders play spiritual, priestly functions, political as well as social roles, as well as human activity as the pin of social cohesion as good as intermediaries betwixt the gods as well as their people, they protect the musical types as well as instruments identified alongside their office. These high-ranking priests also receive got their musical instruments, but no such musical instruments or music may live used exterior their designated roles without the expressed permission of the ruler, as their musical instruments are regarded as component of the State regalia.
Source:http://afrrevjo.net/journals/multidiscipline/Vol_6_no_2_art_8.pdf
"As the neat Greek philosopher says:
Man know thy self.
We say: Man know thy culture.
Man know thy worldview.
Man know thy language.
For linguistic communication is the primary agency of
preserving as well as transmitting culture.
Speak your language, do non allow it die.
By doing this,
You save your civilization as well as identity."
Ibibio cultural dancers from Akwa Ibom state,Nigeria
The Ibibio people are Kwa speaking people Benue-Congo grouping of Niger-Congo language, occupying the palm belt inwards the southeast Nigeria`s Akwa Ibom state and are regarded as the most ancient of all the ethnic groups inwards Nigeria.They are related to the Anaang as well as the Efik peoples. During colonial catamenia inwards Nigeria, the Ibibio Union asked for recognition past times the British as a sovereign land (Noah, 1988). The Annang, Efik, Ekid, Oron as well as Ibeno part personal names, culture, as well as traditions alongside the Ibibio, as well as speak closely related varieties of Ibibio-Efik. Prior to present-day Nigeria they were regarded as Ibibio tribes speaking dialects of Ibibio.
Ibibio human being as well as his wife,Akwa Ibom state,Nigeria
Dr. Mon Noah inwards his piece of work "Ibibio Pioneers inwards Modern Nigerian History" writes: “The Ibibio occupy mostly the mainland parts of the Cross River State as well as constitute the quaternary largest ethnic grouping inwards Nigeria. The major Ibibio sub-groups include the Oron, Eket, Ibuno, as well as Annang as well as in that location are also some Ibibio communities inwards most of the line-fishing settlements along the estuary of the Cross River. The Efik people of Calabar are descendants of Ibibio people.” However, Annang, Efik as well as other related people regard themselves as dissimilar people as described past times Dr Mon Noah as well as other historians.
"Ibio-ibio" agency curt or brief as well as doesn't receive got anything to do alongside acme of the Ibibios...! The hollo was given due the Ibibios brief way of doing things.
The nearest neighbours of the Ibibio are the Ibo (Igbo) to the northwest, Ijaw to the southwest as well as Efik to the southeast, alongside the Qua, Efut as well as Ekoi farther away inwards the northeast. Among these maybe the Efik are their greatest adversaries. The Ibibio come upward into conflict alongside Efik as they do concern as well as interact alongside the latter inwards Metropolitan Calabar, the spot of authorities as well as direction inwards the Cross River State.
Ibibio people:A Delegation of Mboho Mkparawa Ibibio led past times The President, Akparawa Nse Ubeh at Annang New Yam/Cultural Festival 2012
Geography as well as Location of Ibibio Land
The Ibibio people are found predominately inwards Akwa Ibom province as well as is made upward of the related Anaang community, the Ibibio community as well as the Eket as well as Oron Communities, although other groups commonly empathise the Ibibio language. Because of the larger population of the Ibibio people, they agree political command over Akwa-Ibom State, but authorities is shared alongside the Anaangs, Eket as well as Oron. The political scheme follows the traditional method of consensus. Even though elections are held, practically, the political leaders are pre-discussed inwards a mode that is benefiting to all.
The Ibibio people are located inwards Southeastern Nigeria also known as Coastal Southeastern Nigeria. Prior to the existence of Nigeria as a Nation, the Ibibio people were self-governed. The Ibibio people became a component of the Eastern Nigeria of Nigeria nether British colonial rule. During the Nigerian Civil War, the Eastern part was split into 3 states. Southeastern State of Nigeria was where the Ibibios were located, i of the original twelve states of Nigeria) after Nigerian independence. The Efik, Anaang, Oron, Eket as well as their brothers as well as sisters of the Ogoja District, were also inwards the Southeastern State. The province (Southeastern State) was afterwards renamed Cross Rivers State. Again inwards the twelvemonth 1987, past times a Military Decree No.24 promulgated that same year, Akwa Ibom State was carved out of the as well as then Cross Rivers State as a separate State on her ain on the 23rd September, 1987.Cross Rivers State remains as i of neighboring States.
Ibibio cultural troupe
Southwestern Republic of Cameroon was a component of introduce Cross River State as well as Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. During the as well as then Eastern Region of Nigeria it got partitioned into Republic of Cameroon inwards a 1961 plebiscite. This resulted inwards the Ibibio, Efik, as well as Annang beingness divided betwixt Nigeria as well as Cameroon. However, the leadership of the Northern Region of Nigeria was able to maintain "Northwestern section" during the referendum that is right away today's Nigerian Adamawa as well as Taraba states.
Language
The Ibibio tribe is the 4th largest ethnic laid inwards Nigeria, as well as barely outnumbered past times the Igbo their neighbor. Apart from the Igbos, the other 2 ethnic groups that outnumbers Ibibio are the Hausa as well as Yoruba. About v i thou 1000 people inwards Nigeria speak Ibibio as their woman parent natural language as well as inhabit much of the South- eastern component of the country. Among the 4 i thou 1000 speakers are minor groups speaking minor 'languages" identified as Ito, Itu Mbon Uso, Iwere, Nkari as well as Ukwa (cf. Essien 1987:34).
Ibibio people of Akwa Ibom State
Genetically, the Ibibio linguistic communication belongs to the Benue-Congo sub-family which inwards plow belongs to the Niger-Congo family, i of the largest families of knguages inwards Africa, according to Greenberg's (1963) classification. Still, nether this genetic classification Ibibio belongs to the Lower Cross group, a grouping of closely related languages to which Efik as well as Annang, alongside which Ibibio forms a cluster of dialects, also belong, as well as to which nosotros refer as Ibibiod.
Lexical Comparison of Words inwards Ibibio Dialects
Eaglish Ibibio Efik Oron Eket
God Abasi Abasi Abasi Abasi
human being Eden Eren Onwieni Aniniewe
adult woman Awowan Nwan Utangayo Mbaba
me Ami Ami Omi Amei
you lot Afo Afo Ofu Afe
i Kied Kiet Ki Kiang
2 Iba Iba Iba Iba
3 Ita Ita Ita Ita
4 Inang Inang Iniang Iniang
Source: F E K Amoah`s Field Study, (June, 1986).
The Ibibio linguistic communication is old as the people themselves, dating dorsum centuries ago. However, its history as a written linguistic communication is really recent. Although Ibibio was truly written only inwards 1983, the attempts to write as well as develop the linguistic communication go dorsum as far as to the fourth dimension Efik itself was close to live written inwards the final century (between 1846 as well as 1862, when Hugh Goldie's Dictionary of the Efik Language was published). For according to Jeffreys (1935:106), the foremost elbow grease to write Ibibio was defeated past times only 2 votes, as the quotation below shows:
At the Language Conference held inwards Calabar the motion to impose the Efik dialect on the Ibibio race was carried past times 2 votes as well as then, only because 2 members refrained from voting. That defeat of Ibibio or victory for Efik has made all the difference, for the Efik dialect was to live imposed on the Ibibio race past times the early on missionaries to this component of the world whose efforts were directed towards the evolution of Efik, as pointed out past times Jeffreys (1935:2)
The missionaries naturally directed their foremost studies to the Efik linguistic communication alongside the resultant that the Efik receive got benefited enormously as well as their linguistic communication has inevitably assumed a spot that is non justified either upon population or linguistic basis.
In spite of the initial -set-back for Ibibio, Jeffreys, a i fourth dimension District Officer of Nigeria, produced an orthography for the Ibibio linguistic communication as well as made a passionate plea to the missionary as well as other authorities that Ibibio live used officially side past times side alongside Efik for mutual benefits (cf. Jeffreys 1935:103). But this orthography was rejected as well as the elbow grease to brand Ibibio an official linguistic communication failed.
Consequent upon this rejection, Ibibio was to rest unwritten as well as unofficial for decades until 1983, when alongside the sponsorship of an Ibibio cultural organization, Akwa Esop Imaisong Ibibio, an orthography was produced as well as presented to the Ministry of Education of the as well as then Cross River State of which the introduce Akwa Ibom was a part. The orthography, edited past times this author, was officially approved past times the Ministry of Education as well as inwards -a missive of the alphabet MOE/COM/IA Vol. X/482 of twelfth September, 1983, the as well as then Commissioner for Education, Professor E.J. Usua, directed that Ibibio live taught inwards all schools inwards what is right away Akwa Ibom State using the orthography as the criterion one. Ibibio is in all likelihood the only linguistic communication so far inwards Nigeria whose orthography has been designed as well as produced past times the owners of the linguistic communication themselves. The orthographies of the other languages, including those of the major languages, receive got been produced past times either expatriate missionaries or authorities agencies.
Ibibio Creation Mythology
The creator, Abassi, created 2 humans as well as and then decided to non allow them to alive on earth. His wife, Atai, persuaded him to allow them, the people, alive on earth.
In monastic enjoin to command the humans, Abassi insisted that they eat all their meals alongside him, thereby keeping them from growing or hunting food.
He also forbade them to receive got children. Soon, though, the adult woman began growing nutrient inwards the earth, as well as they stopped showing upward to eat alongside Abassi.
Then the human being joined his married adult woman inwards the fields, as well as before long in that location were children also.
Abassi blamed his married adult woman for the way things had turned out, but she told him she would handgrip it.
She sent to earth, decease as well as discord to maintain the people inwards their place, as well as their numbers down.
History/Origin
Ibibios are regarded as the most ancient of all the ethnic groups inwards Nigeria,however, "There are no legends or traditions of root amid the Ibibio. They receive got been long plenty inwards the Forest belt to receive got forgotten the stories of their origin. (Jeffreys, 192 7,p. 28). As a resultant in that location many stories close their origins. According to Robert McKeon, the Ibibio are in all likelihood the indigenous natives from whom most minor tribes of Qua Ibom as well as Calabar are descended.
Ibibio people,Circa 1915
Ibibio Traditions of Origin as well as Ethnic Relations
Information close Ibibio origins is highly speculative as well as varied. Available traditional sources suggest that the earliest stock of the Ibibio included the Afaha clan whose ancestral identify is believed to live Usak Edet (Isangele) inwards South-western Republic of Cameroon as well as that in that location are strong cultural similarities betwixt the Ibibio as well as the Bakoko of Southern Republic of Cameroon (Noah, 1980a). It is suggested that the highland regions of this component of Africa may receive got been a major centre of human evolution on the continent (Dike,1956). According to Ford as well as Jones, the Ibibio settlement of Isangele right away forms a minor tribe inwards the Kumba Division of Cameroon.
Ibom centre historical hypothesis of root of Ibibio
It is farther suggested that the Ibibio people migrated from these eastern parts of their introduce homeland inwards 2 major directions. One grouping may receive got reached what is right away the Ibibio Mainland past times an overland route as well as settled at Ibom inwards Arochukwu formerly an Ibibio territory but right away Ibo. Noah (1980b), on the say-so of an before reference past times Jeffreys (1927) states that the Ibibio lived inwards Arochukwu (South-eastern border of Iboland) in all likelihood betwixt A.D. 1300 as well as 1400 as well as for a long fourth dimension maintained a famous shrine called Long Juju of Arochukwu at that place. But this latter proposition is discounted past times Aye (n.d) on the grounds that the Ibibio receive got no such tradition nor exercise of such a cult.
Many scholars nevertheless proceed to press the viewpoint of a centre of Ibibio dispersion from the hamlet of Ibom inwards Arochukwu to other parts of the introduce Ibibioland, (Akwa Ibom State). It is thought that the people of present-day Abak, Uyo as well as Ikot Ekpene who are described as Eastern Ibibio or Ibibio proper powerfulness receive got migrated from that cradle, although as nosotros shall regard later, the structural layout of their clans today hardly supports this viewpoint.
There are other Ibibio who, according to some other version of the migration story, seem to receive got reached the Mainland past times ocean from the east, presumably Cameroon. Among these would live the Oron, Eket, as well as Andoni people who upon arrival at the seaboard may receive got advanced northward until they came upward against the eastern Ibibio expanding southward. Indeed the Rev. Groves (1930) of the Methodist Mission suggested that the Annang or Western Ibibio migrated northward from a identify close Opobo past times the creeks of the Cross
River estuary. He based his disputation on the observation that the full general vogue inwards the province had been i of northward pressure. But such a vogue would receive got been also recent to live considered as component of a full general motion amid the early on Ibibio settlers.
Ibibio people
Original Ibibio Homeland as well as Environs
Geographically, the presumed migration of the Ibibio from the south-western highlands of Republic of Cameroon to the Lower Cross River Basin may receive got occurred through 2 natural gaps - the Benue as well as Mamfe Troughs. The Niger-Benue surface area today is a part of neat cultural multifariousness as well as complexity; but the geological history of the south-eastern lowlands shows that only the Oban Massifs as well as Adamawa Highlands stood higher upward the ocean that invaded this component of Africa during the Eocene period. This suggests that the Lower Cross River Basin powerfulness receive got remained nether the ocean for 'a long time' (Dessau as well as Whiteman, 1972).
Even inwards comparatively recent times the physical environs has presented many obstacles to costless motion of people. At the fourth dimension of the early on migrations of the Ibibio in that location must receive got been a high wood which at its primeval stage would receive got been a really hard environment. There was also a trough through which the Enyong creek right away flows. This lowland alongside marshes as well as seasonal floods could non receive got offered a hospitable environs to the early on settlers. Besides fifty-fifty though the people must receive got adjusted themselves to the riverine environment, the Cross River as well as its numerous tributaries would almost certainly receive got been formidable barriers rather than points of contact as well as interaction betwixt the Ibibio as well as the original people who may receive got before occupied the land. As all these constraints prevarication to the due south as well as south-west of the picayune hamlet of Ibom where tradition has it that the Ibibio foremost lived, it is hard to reconstruct the path through which the Ibibio 'fled', as it were, from state of war alongside the local people to their introduce homeland inwards the south. All that tin can live said is that they managed to avoid these obstacles.
The Alternative Ikono Centre (Cradle of Ibibio people) of Dispersion Hypothesis
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 to a greater extent than plausible as well as acceptable hypothesis of the lbibio migration is that proposed past times Jones (1963) who suggests that the cradle of the Ibibio people lies somewhere betwixt Abak as well as Uyo authorities stations of Akwa Ibom State. In the words of Jones:
"A study o fthe introduce distribution of the Ibibio tribes suggests an early on scatter of
the Ibibio over an surface area extending from Arochukwu inwards the north, Ika on the due west and
Own inwards the south. This was followed past times a massive dispersal due north as well as due south from
a centre somewhere betwixt the introduce Abak as well as Oyo authorities stations as well as a
differentiation into Annang (Western) as well as Ibibio (Eastern). (Jones, 1963, p. 31)."
Unfortunately Jones did non proceed whatever farther to highlight this dot beyond these few verbal statements. Ntukidem (1977) tookup the number some years afterwards to examine the validity of Jones* assertion alongside the assist of structural hypotheses which rested on the assumptions of constrained vis-a-vis unconstrained expansion of the Ibibio clans as well as settlements from a mutual centre.
Granting that the bond of mutual ancestry, customs as well as civilization may save ephemeral unity of primary communities inwards the race of expansion, inwards the foremost instance of constrained expansion inwards a conflict province of affairs i should await a restricted motion inwards i as well as the same direction. The resultant spread would resemble a fan or beam from a torchlight as inwards the instance of the Ibom Origin hypothesis. In the 2d instance of unconstrained expansion i may await a circular growth of clans as well as settlements resembling a diffusion pattern inwards ripples made past times a rock dropped into a pond or the spokes of a bicycle as inwards the instance of Ikono centre hypothesis.
Distortions, of course of study may modify these ideal patterns especially where physical obstacles limit or obstruct the costless motion of people, for example, where the population of dissimilar segments of the community is confronted alongside unfriendly neighbours as well as frequent wars. Thus if the 2 hypothesized centres of dispersion at Ibom inwards Arochukwu as well as Ikono betwixt Abak as well as Uyo authorities stations receive got whatever important at all, the impact of the motion of people would receive got been vividly recorded inwards the construction of the boundaries
as well as orientation of the dissimilar segments of the clans to the source part of the migration.
On the reason of this supposition the Ibom centre hypothesis has to live rejected on the reason that the wedge or fan-shape layout of clans expected is non represented inwards the landscape today. On the other manus the Ikono centre theory, the findings of which truly demo at to the lowest degree 16 maj or clans believed to receive got derived their root from a mutual centre, must live accepted as a reason for farther investigation.
The Evidence from Territorial Occupation past times Ibibio Clans
Of the many Ibibio clans, Ikono presents a curious shape as well as significantly in that location are portions of this sub-clan amid the western, eastern, northern as well as southern Ibibio. It runs inwards a north-west direction through the greatest length of Ibibioland. Its sub-clans are found inwards Abak, Itu, Uyo, Etinan as well as Opobo local authorities areas. Directly due north of the assumed centre is Ibiono clan whose shape conforms to what should live expected nether the presumed centrifugal growth (sectors) from a mutual centre. The clan is wedge-like inwards shape alongside its sharpest border lying close the assumed origin. From hither it stretches for nearly 70 kilometres towards the Enyong Creek.
Outside Ibiono clan towards the due north as well as north-east are Itam as well as Uruan clans which also spread out inwards a fan or wedge-shape. Between these are smaller splinter clans of Etoi, Oku as well as Efut. In the south-'eastern department 2 clans, Nsit as well as Iman stretch nearly the same distances from the centre. Ibesikpo clan's southward projection is nevertheless arrested past times twos minor intervening clans of Iwawa as well as Ndikpo. The due south western department is made upward of Abak Ukanafim as well as Ndot amid the most extensive clans as well as their arrest inwards the due west is suggestive of the high population as well as struggle for land. In the northwest, the layout consists of severally broken upward clans such as Abak, Ukanafun Afaha, Abako as well as Obong, Annang which depict an outward growth from the presumed centre.
This visual evidence inwards back upward of the Ikono centre hypothesis gives acceptance to the proposition that the Ibibio had lived inwards their introduce homeland for a "very long time" as well as casts doubts close the presupposition that the people began their migration from Ibom farther due north of this point. Indeed, the observed pattern of clan distribution inwards Ibibioland especially the long stretches of Ikono, Abak, Ibiono, Itam, Nsit, Iman as well as others from a mutual centre could hardly receive got been achieved inwards only 3 hundred years as proposed past times Talbot (1926).
Economy
The Ibibio largely engage inwards farming, fishing, as well as trading. While farming is the principal problem of the Ibibio uplands, the river-side Ibibio traditionally piece of work as fishermen at line-fishing ports commonly known as INE. Trading is done past times middlemen who human activity as brokers betwixt the producers of goods as well as the consumers.
Among the Ibibio, those of the highest rank inwards the Ekpo society, Amama, often command the bulk of the community wealth. The Amama often appropriate hundreds of acres of palm tree for their ain utilization as well as ensure alongside the profits they earn that their sons accomplish comparable rank, effectively limiting access to economical gain for most members of the community. The Ekpo society requires that its initiates sponsor feasts for the town, which fosters the appearance of the redistribution of wealth past times providing the misfortunate alongside nutrient as well as drink. In effect, this allows the disparity inwards wealth to live perpetuated inwards Ibibio society.
Outside the farming as well as line-fishing seasons the Ibibio traditionally pass their fourth dimension alongside various recreational activities, alongside games as well as sports similar wrestling, swimming, Oyo, as well as Ekara (marksmanship) as well as arrow shooting). Also moonlight plays similar 0ffiong as well as Edop furnish a skillful platform for social interaction peculiarly for the youths. Daytime plays include Ukwa, Ebre, Ibit-Abang, Ekong, as well as a host of others.
Industrial Arts
The Ibibio are good known for their science inwards wood carving as well as are considered masters of an adroit professional person technique. Weaving is to a greater extent than often than non done past times youths of both sexes, whereas women are responsible for mat making.
Division of Labor
As alongside the Igbo, yams are traditionally considered to live the main crop of men, as well as cocoyams the main crop of women. Men do most of the clearing, planting, as well as harvesting of the yams. Women weed, plant, as well as tend other crops. They also collect the harvested yams into baskets as well as ship them to the market.
In collecting the make from palm trees, men to a greater extent than often than non do the climbing, as well as the women collect as well as ship the fruit to the market. The extracting as well as processing of palm oil is commonly done past times women, who retain the palm kernels. Also, raffia palms may live tended past times men, but are commonly owned past times women, as well as are used to brand wine, mats, as well as poles.
Land Tenure
With a strong emphasis on the patrilineage, the virile somebody members shape the dominant nucleus of the hamlet as well as receive got collective rights to its land. The lineage caput allocates the terra firma for farming amid its members on a yearly basis
Ibibio Kinship
Among the Ibibio, kinship is patrilineal (i.e descent is traced through the father) piece identify unit of measurement is polygynous. According to Ekong (1988) the Ibibio identify unit of measurement was initially patrilineal (upon marriage, a pair lives alongside or
close the husbands parents) as well as of late neolocal (married pair lives apart from their relatives)
Ibibio kinship construction is also something of a trinity. The Ibibio kinship trinity involves complex of norms involving ayeyin (grandchild), ukod (in-law) as well as imaan (blood brother). It provides dependable framework as well as serves as a pin of social relations amid Ibibio people living inwards as well as exterior Ibibioland. The enduring nature of this trinity amid Ibibios belies an assertion that the Ibibios are unusually receptive to invention from cultures which they come upward inwards contact (Esen 1982:4).
Socialization as well as Family units
Ibibio men as well as women are formally grouped into historic catamenia sets, the condition of which increases alongside seniority. They are informally established for youths roughly the historic catamenia of 10, as well as are formally recognized when its members are close 12 years of age. Members of the immature sets are given instruction inwards morality as well as native laws. To this end, historic catamenia sets role as self-disciplinary institutions as well as guardians of populace morality.
Ibibio kids from Akwa Ibom state
The basic identify unit of measurement (nnung) unit of measurement amid the Ibibio is the chemical compound (ekpuk). Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 chemical compound consists of the caput who is commonly the eldest male, his wives, siblings as well as other relatives inwards the household. The chemical compound caput has jurisdiction over all the members of the household. However, he is subordinate to the caput of the extended family. The extended identify unit of measurement comprises of a combination of related compounds. This constitutes the extended identify unit of measurement group. The extended identify unit of measurement caput handles serious matters affecting the lineage piece the chemical compound caput handles purely domestic matters.
Furthermore, a combination of extended identify unit of measurement groups brand upward a clan which to a greater extent than often than non has a name, mutual dialect as well as custom, a totem as well as a ritual leader.
Political system
The Ibibio traditional society operates a “stateless society” which, according to Ekong (1988), is organized on the segmnetary unilineal principles. Citing Onwuejeogwu, Ekong describes a stateless society as i which lacks a centralized scheme of political organisation alongside a king.
Traditionally Ibibio society consists of communities that are made upward of Large Families alongside blood affinity each ruled past times their Constitutional as well as Religious Head known as the Obong Ikpaisong. The Obong Ikpaisong ruled alongside the Mbong Ekpuk (Head of the Families)which together alongside the Heads of the Cults as well as Societies constitute the 'Afe or Asan or Esop Ikpaisong' (Traditional Council or Traditional Shrine or Traditional Court'). The decisions or orders of the Traditional Council or the Obong Ikpaisong were enforced past times members of the Ekpo or Obon society who human activity as messengers of the spirits as well as the armed forces as well as police push clit of the Community. Ekpo members are e'er masked when performing their policing duties, as well as although their identities are almost e'er known, fearfulness of retribution from the ancestors prevents most people from accusing those members who transcend their social boundaries, effectively committing police push clit brutality. Membership is opened upward to all Ibibio males, but i must receive got access to wealth to displace into the politically influential grades. The Obon Society alongside its strong enticing traditional musical prowess, alongside pop acceptability, openly executes its mandates alongside musical procession as well as pop participation past times Members which comprises children, youth, adults as well as really brave elderly women.
Religious belief
Ibibio believe that in that location is a Supreme beingness called Abasi whoc created all things including the gods (ndem) to who He gives accuse of the dissimilar aspect of human affairs. Thus in that location is ndem isiong (fertility goddess) to aspect after terra firma fertilitity, ndem ndua (market god) to protect the involvement of those who purchase as well as sell at the market,etc.
Below the gods are unincarnated spirits similar eka abasi, the spirit woman parent that looks after children. Then in that location are spirits of the ancestors whom they worship too.
Ibibio union rites
Marriage is regarded as a complex of social, political, religious, as well as economical systems inwards Ibibio terra firma (Udo, 1983). It covers various aspects of the society as identify unit of measurement as well as community relationships, sexual activity as well as sexuality, inheritance, as well as fifty-fifty political powerfulness (as rulership peculiarly inwards the past times resided inwards specific as well as designated families both the secular as well as the religious).
Ibibio couple
Betrothal before the historic catamenia of xiv used to live common. Marriage payments were made to the prospective bride's parents. The union payment was shared amid the bride's kin, alongside the virile somebody parent keeping the largest share. The union payment traditionally had to live completed before the union could live consummated; it was supplemented past times services rendered past times the hubby to the bride's father.
When a human being proposes to a adult woman as well as of course of study the adult woman accepts, they are as well as then required to go as well as regard the woman’s parents, this is called “Ndidiong Ufok” which agency “ to know the house” of the lady. You could telephone phone it an introduction. During this, non many people are expected to go alongside the groom just close 3 - 4 people would live okay, but if to a greater extent than people are to go as well as then the bride’s identify unit of measurement must live informed of the number of people that volition live showing upward so they tin can brand proper arrangements, especially as the identify unit of measurement of the bride is mandated past times custom to ready as well as welcome the members of the groom’s identify unit of measurement similar special guests.
The adjacent pace is the ‘knocking of the door’; the appointment for the “Nkong Udok/ Nkong Usong (depending on the dialect)” is laid after the ‘Ndidiong Ufok’,So after the identify unit of measurement of the groom has gotten to know the theatre of the miss as well as then they tin can come upward as well as knock on the door as well as officially inquire for the lady’s hand.
The knocking on the door is to a greater extent than or less the same as inwards the Yoruba tradition or the Igbo tradition, where identify unit of measurement of the groom comes as well as asks for the miss that they are looking for inwards the theatre as well as inwards plow collect the "list" provided past times the Father as well as elders of the girls identify unit of measurement .
Beautiful Ibibio bride inwards her traditional attire
In the Ibibio tradition the grooms identify unit of measurement has to purchase some things for the identify unit of measurement of the bride, hence the list, which would include things for each fellow member of the lady’s identify unit of measurement from the youngest to the oldest. The solar daytime that the things or items on the listing are to live delivered is called the ‘Uno Mpo’, which agency to “to give something”. Traditionally, this listing is a way of compensating the identify unit of measurement of the lady past times the identify unit of measurement members of the groom’ for talking away a fellow member of their identify unit of measurement thus reducing the number of hands that would receive got helped inwards the farm or alongside cooking as well as taking tending of the house. Of course of study today, in that location are no farms to assist out alongside but inwards most cases, but tradition is tradition.
Ibibio bride`s arrival
The appointment of the delivery of the items is commonly settled on at the ‘Nkong Udok/ Nkong Usong’.
The adjacent thing to follow all these events is the traditional wedding. This is where all the pilus as well as vesture that you lot would in all likelihood receive got seen inwards pictures or videos are donned; the bride as well as groom wearing clothing inwards total traditional regalia sometimes similar a prince or princess (depending on their ain tastes of course) etc. The ceremony takes identify to a greater extent than or less similar the Igbo Traditional wedding, from the hiding of the groom to the married adult woman looking for him alongside the drinkable given to her past times her parents to offering him.
Ibibio nuptials dress,Circa 1910
All these events are handled according to the handbag size of the families involved, as well as inwards recent times, people take to do all or some of these events together as well as sometimes skip some parts all together inwards a bid to cut the length of the whole ceremony.
Ibibio couple
Initiation Rites
For the Ibibio the has 2 aspects-visible, that is the domain of ordinary human experience: as well as invisible, the domain of God, the gods as well as spirits. Human life passes through these 2 domains inwards a cycle; the adult becomes aged as well as passes into the world of invisible to live re-incarnated as well as born i time to a greater extent than as a babe into the world of visible. Birth as well as decease are thus moments inwards the life cycle. As a resultant the Ibibio has a sacrifice for periodic phases of the life cycle. These are:
Sacrifice at naming ceremony (usio enying)
Sacrifice at puberty (Mbopo/nkuho)
Sacrifice at death.
There are also initiations for sure high ranking personalities inwards Ibibio society. These includes:
Sacrifice at Chietaincy initiation
Sacrifice at initiation into cultic associations
Sacrifice at initiation into the guild of diviners (abia idiong)
Mbopo Rites
Mbopo also known as “fattening house” ritual is an Ibibio women’s ritual that points to a greater resident civilization that heralds ceremonial seclusion, corpulence, as well as ornamental extravagance as principal components inwards woman somebody identity construction. It is i of several exclusive women’s institutions found inwards southeast Nigeria. Mbopo translates as “the fattened girl,” referring to the i who has been secluded to ekuk mbopo, or “fattening house.” The term mbopo also embodies her collective physical care for of confinement, beautification, fattening, as well as circumcision, the final of which is a physical care for that was traditionally considered as a ceremonial rite for a immature woman, ensuring her purity, sexual appeal, marital fortune, as well as successful pregnancies.
Specifically, the emergence of a “fat as well as beautiful” miss from a regulated catamenia of seclusion inwards ekuk mbopo is paramount for the sustenance of a community. Yet, of equal value to her appearance is that she live imbued alongside strength as good as the science required to handgrip the unrelenting rigors of womanhood.
Ibibio bride looking fresh after Mbopo ritual
Mbopo ritual is concerned alongside woman somebody corporeality, especially alongside honour to physical modifications to beautify that empower the initiate. In add-on to weight gain, ceremonial transformations include body adornment alongside oils as well as dyes, tattooing, cicatrizations(or body “scarring”), massages, elaborate hairstyles, as well as inwards rare instances, tooth-filing. The “fattening house” is an educational boudoir where an mbopo initiate learns the secrets of womanhood. It is the conceptual platform on which details close sex, motherhood,
as well as child-rearing are transferred from elderberry hamlet women to the mbopo. Furthermore, she learns the local songs, dances, as well as artistic practices similar wall painting, pyrography on cloths as well as calabash vessels, as well as the creation of ceremonial fans.
Seclusion is traditionally linked to performative demonstrations of dearest as well as tending through populace displays of opulence. The initiate’s catamenia of confinement, which may final from a pair of weeks to as long as 2 or 3 years, depends largely on the wealth of her family. The success of her confinement is measured inwards her
weightiness, radiance, sanguinity, as well as overall demeanor. Additionally, her seclusion is inwards component a metaphor: the physical separation from her identify unit of measurement as well as friends during confinement represents her hereafter post-seclusion condition as an elite woman, who is laid apart from others inwards her community.
For to a greater extent than on Ibibio sacrificial rites click on this link:-Sacrificial-Worship-in-Ibibio-Traditional-Religion.pdf
Proverbs
The fine art of using proverbs inwards spoken communication is characteristic of people all over the world as well as the Ibibio are no exception to this fine art (Okon, 2004, p. 107). In every culture, proverbs are communicated inwards colourful as well as bright linguistic communication to demo the values for members to follow. For examples:
1) Ubok mʌm, ubok mʌm etuud ukpa, inwards togetherness,any obstruction tin can live removed. “Ukpa” Iroko is a sort of tree. The worldview is reflected inwards the environs through the utilization of i of the trees – Iroko – inwards the wood to demo how heavy the tree is. In spite of its weight as it is inwards reality,the Ibibio believe that when people dearest as well as appreciate each other, together they tin can displace the body of the Ukpa (Iroko) tree. This same vie is also illustrated below.
2) Ubok Otʌk edem, edem otʌk ubok.The manus is needed to scrub the dorsum create clean just as theback as needs to scrub the manus clean. The world view hither is that assist is reciprocal. As a group, they can
overcome whatever obstacle; if you lot demand others to assist you,you as demand to assist others too.
3) Eto idaaha ikpon ikap-pa akai.A tree cannot brand a wood or no human being is an island. This maxim uses linguistic communication to explore the African poeticlandscape alongside its flora as well as fauna. This is achieved through the utilization of words similar “eto” tree as well as akai forest.
The tree symbolizes human being as well as this maxim farther strengthens the concept of togetherness. Another worldview or reality inwards life amid the Ibibio is that of forewarning. The maxim below shows this belief:
4) Edue ukod akpa iton. Be watchful lest you lot autumn (die). This maxim bringslanguage into the province of symbolism. The symbolism is that of warning. The alert calls for carefulness, otherwise decease volition live the halt result. Most if non all cultures receive got this world view – “to live fore-warned is to live fore-armed”.
In Ibibio culture, in that location are proverbs which bargain alongside piece of work ethics,
5) Owo akpaniko ikpaaha bion. An honest human being volition e'er bring out piece of work to do.
6) Bia ayin unwene itaaha ikan. The labours of human being volition bear fruit.
7) Ubok anam enyin ama. What the manus does the oculus likes.
As already observed the Ibibio worldview emphasizes the code of beingness honest at piece of work which inwards plow results inwards to a greater extent than piece of work as well as appreciation. The Ibibio worldview uses indigenous nutrient item similar bia-“yam” which is believed to live a production of the hard piece of work of man. The Ibibio civilization has the proverb-riddle which combines the properties of maxim as well as riddles. As Umoh (2007, p. 9) notes, the components of the maxim riddle
comprise: Question, answer, tone as well as rhythm. The next proverb-riddle reverberate the worldview of the Ibibio.
8) a. Oduok nton ke nton akeene. He who throws the ash, is the i that the ash follows
b. asua ayin owo inieeghe ake omo. He who hates some other person’s kid does non have
his own.
This maxim shows the worldview where whatever i does volition sure enough boomerang. It calls to hear the
global belief inwards the law of karma or retribution. The maxim provides insight into the life style, the beliefs, the
environs as well as the fauna of the Ibibio. We debate that proverbs are curt statements that portray the intellectual as well as communicative contents amid the speakers inwards a spoken communication community (Okon, 2004, p. 106) as well as inwards this instance, the Ibibio. Read all close Ibibio proverbs here:http://books.google.com.gh/books
Ibibio people inwards USA
Death as well as Afterlife
Worship of the ancestors is a really of import component of Ibibio religious culture. Sacrifices are often made at the ancestral shrine, which is kept at the theatre of the eldest fellow member of the lineage group. Disgruntled ancestors may wander amid the living, causing damage until the ceremony of Obio Ekpo ("world of the dead") is performed so that the spirit tin can acquire inwards the world of the dead. The Ibibio receive got a concept of skillful ( eti ) as well as evil/bad ( idiok). Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 somebody has 2 souls, the immortal soul ( ukpong ) as well as the animal-linked soul ( ukpong ikot), which tin can alive inwards lions, leopards, bush pigs, antelopes, as well as pythons. The latter also dies at death, whereas the sometime is reincarnated or becomes a malevolent ghost troubling the living.
Source:http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Institue%20of%20African%20Studies%20Research%20Review/1992v8n1&2/asrv008001&2007.pdf
“Ekpo society masks of the Ibibio.”
The society known as Ekpo Nyoho (or, inwards its shortened form, Ekpo) is the most of import as well as widely distributed of 3 surreptitious societies silent active inwards various Ibibio towns inwards southeastern Nigeria. In the absence of a centralized political state, Ekpo regulated social, legal, political, as well as economical matters inwards its community during precolonial times (Atmore & Stacey 1979:77). As instruments of social control, its masks were carved to heighten a sense of fearfulness as well as mystery (Jones 1984:183).
Ekpo masquerades
Before the advent of colonialism inwards the early on 1900s, hamlet authorities functioned on 2 overlapping structural levels; it silent does so today, though to a lesser extent. The foremost plane consists of the civil machinery of traditional patriarchal authority. The caput of the identify unit of measurement rules his immediate household. Beyond him is the caput of the extended family, who hears complaints as well as settles disputes betwixt families united past times ties of kinship as well as living side past times side inwards the town. He is concerned alongside the everyday direction of the community, alongside rules as well as customs governing conduct. These town as well as identify unit of measurement chiefs often telephone phone upon elders to assist create upward one's hear of import matters during town councils, where opinions are openly expressed.
The surreptitious societies, constituting the 2d plane of government, are concerned alongside crises as well as emergencies affecting the town collectively. It was on this level, devised to bargain alongside powerful socially disruptive or dysfunctional forces, that the mask found its special place.
Ekpo Nyoho is the principal surreptitious society inwards most Ibibio towns as well as villages. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 2d society, Ekpo Ekong, is active only inwards Ibiono, where it is of foremost importance. The 3rd society, Ekpe, has been described inwards particular past times Nair (1972:14-20). Though found inwards all Ibibio towns it is of foremost importance only inwards Opobo as well as Oron as well as amid the Efik of Calabar as well as the Ogoja of Cross River State. Ekpe is also practiced inwards many Igbo towns, as well as beyond.
The Ekpo society serves as an enforcement arm of hamlet government, though it plays a smaller role inwards this regard than it did inwards the past. It provides an outlet for youths as well as men to channel their energies into activities which are beneficial to the community. During the Ekpo season, which lasts from June to December, the society exerts an enormous influence on people's lives. For example, on the days when the masks come upward out, farming activity is suspended. Women as well as nonmembers cannot go to the marketplace or perform activities exterior their homes: food, water, as well as firewood must receive got been obtained inwards advance. When they are non patrolling the hamlet border or assembling at the hamlet shrine to sing as well as dance, society members also rest at home.Quarrels as well as fights are prohibited. Visitors to the hamlet are thoroughly checked past times Ekpo to brand sure their missions are harmless. Stealing carries peculiarly heavier penalties during the season; close l years ago, the penalty was death, carried out past times Ekpo.
Masks are used past times each of the 3 surreptitious societies but are most mutual inwards Ekpo Nyoho, where human face masks alongside raffia hanging downward to the waist are the most characteristic type. If a dominion is violated, the main sends masked characters to enforce sanctions. The say-so as well as legitimacy of these characters are due partly to their established history as well as partly to imagery as well as symbols carefully manipulated to arouse fearfulness as well as and to create an impression of the masks' invincibility. Without the mystique surrounding hem, masks as well as costumes are just objects. The physical characteristics of a masquerade depicted inwards the carving breathe artistic life into the mystique. For the purposes of this paper, nosotros shall focus our attending upon the Ekpo Nyoho society as well as its masks.
Ekpo masquerade
Ekpo Nyoho
Ancestors (ekpo) tin can protect their relatives as well as children on earth. Masked spirits human activity as intermediaries who relay messages from the living to the ancestors, as well as also ship instructions as well as warnings from the ancestors to the living. Only the spirits of heroic men are portrayed as messengers of the Ekpo society. It is non the wandering, restless ghosts who are worshiped, but the skillful ancestors who receive got reached the spirit land. These unseen ancestors are component of the identify unit of measurement as well as are interested inwards its welfare. They are invited past times hollo to the identify unit of measurement repast through libation as well as prayer. Sacrifices to them demonstrates filial piety as well as love.
Despite the characterization of Ekpo as a "secret society," its activities as well as functions are non shrouded inwards mystery. Nonmembers, including women, are fully aware of its role as well as functions, because every villager is dependent to its adjudications as well as code of conduct during the Ekpo season. However, only members participate inwards the rituals as well as practices which prepare them for their role. The main secrets are the serial of code words as well as trip the calorie-free fantastic steps that a fellow member learns when he goes through initiation. These give him the correct to move within as well as exterior his hamlet during the season. When a traveler encounters a masked Ekpo, he is challenged to utter these words as well as to perform the trip the calorie-free fantastic steps. Failure to do so results inwards arrest.
Figure 3
Through Ekpo Nyoho, the ancestors supervise the activities of their descendants, advise them close conduct, as well as protect them from their enemies. These duties are performed through v masked supernatural figures who are representatives of the ancestors. Akpan Ekpo is the caput of the society--the wise old leader (akpan), a warrior, as well as the principal mediator betwixt the living as well as the dead. He is supported past times Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia, who ship out his directions. In the past, members of Ekpo Nyoho who were initiated into the adult grades of Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia had to live neat warriors who could pierce a rolling orangish alongside an arrow from a considerable distance. According to oral history, decease was the penalty for failure inwards this of import trial. The 3 senior figures are served past times Udo Ekpo as well as Ukpaka Ekpo, who are younger as well as non so violent or uncontrolled. These v characters are divided into 4 grades, alongside Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia both beingness inwards the 2d grade, below Akpan Ekpo but higher upward Udo Ekpo (third grade) as well as Ukpaka Ekpo (fourth grade).
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 somebody demand non make through the lower grades to accomplish the total adult roles of Adiaha Unak or Nkubia. He may purchase his way into the senior level, but the cost of initiation is really high. Consequently, despite the importance of the society many men rest uninitiated fifty-fifty into the lower grades through early on adulthood. In principle, to acquire accepted as adult members of the community they should live fully initiated before marriage.
Members of the senior grades are expected to live tough, non only against internal lawbreakers but peculiarly against external enemies.As of late as lxx or fourscore years ago, disputes over farmland would often Pb to intervillage wars as well as the devastation of crops through raids, especially on contested land. Though less frequent, such disputes silent take place.
Hostile encounters are most probable to occur at hamlet boundaries, where i Ekpo masquerader powerfulness challenge some other to cross a line that he has drawn inwards the earth. If the 2d Ekpo refuses to cross, he is taunted as a coward. During a create out betwixt 2 masked Ekpo, society members on both sides must lay downward all their weapons (guns, machetes, bows as well as arrows). The dispute is settled through wrestling, the most pop traditional Ibibio sport. Whichever masquerader wrestles his opponent to the reason as well as removes the other's mask is the victor The loser surrenders his mask--or he may receive got to pay a cost to live allowed to maintain it as well as homecoming home.
The hamlet whose Ekpo masquerader has been defeated endures neat shame. Those inwards the victorious hamlet rejoice because they receive got "taken a head"--for it is the "head," the human face mask itself (iwot ekpo), that has the power. Captured masks are often displayed on hamlet shrines as emblems of the victors' strength as well as bravery; they are not, however, visible to women (though women powerfulness live told that a caput has been taken). "Head taking" has occurred often within the past times x years.
The Masks of Ekpo Nyoho
When a human being dons an Ekpo mask, he loses his human identity as well as assumes the identity of an ancestral spirit. He may utilization a mask that belonged to the deceased ancestor or receive got i made that depicts the ancestor's physical as well as heroic qualities. Masks tin can also portray pop hamlet heroes of the past, right away idolized for their bravery or other achievements. In addition, members of the society receive got masks made whose physical features resemble their own.
The mask, its edges strung alongside raffia that hangs to the waist, is commonly worn alongside a knee-length raffia skirt. The only parts of the body non covered are the lower legs, which are painted alongside charcoal powder, as well as the hands as well as forearms. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 human being must live able to have on a mask alongside ease piece performing his assigned role. It is hard to imagine people fighting piece wearing them, but the masks receive got several features that brand this possible. Many of them are carved from a tree known as ukot, whose calorie-free wood makes them comfortable to wear. In addition, the mask is securely fastened alongside a rope at the dorsum of the head. Further back upward is offered past times a curt stick, commonly fitted horizontally across the within of the mask, which the wearer clenches alongside his teeth.
There is only i Akpan Ekpo inwards a village. As the caput of the Ekpo Nyoho society, he may live called upon past times the main to assist if people inwards the hamlet create out amid themselves or if they reject to pay sure dues or taxes. He tin can inquire society members to patrol sure farm roads to forestall people from stealing, as well as he may telephone phone out the fearsome Nkubia if in that location is conflict alongside some other village. Akpan Ekpo is accountable to the main for the behavior of society members, a serious responsibleness since Ekpo masks receive got been used to hide the identity of those committing crimes.
Each elderberry who performs the role bases the depiction of this masked spirit on i of his ancestors. The masks are commonly carved to resemble specific individuals betwixt the ages of 50 as well as threescore who had a reputation for upholding monastic enjoin as well as justice--wise as well as principled, but also tough as well as uncompromising, men alongside the courage to create out social deviance within the limits of traditional rules. In add-on to physical prowess as well as courage, Akpan Ekpo is known to receive got a special powerfulness to human face upward evil.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 human being performing Akpan Ekpo must receive got these same qualities. He is commonly chosen exclusively on the reason of powerfulness from amid a grouping of elders who receive got attained the championship of idiong. These elders are distinguished past times headbands, also represented on most Akpan Ekpo masks, or past times circular signs on their temples. The idiong championship indicates that a human being has achieved the spiritual powerfulness that enables him to command evil spirits as well as to mediate betwixt the worlds of the ancestors as well as the living.(6) Unlike traditional chieftaincy titles, which rotate amid leading families, Akpan Ekpo is appointed past times the main for life, or until he is no longer able to fulfill the role.
Akpan Ekpo masks are notable for their variation. The only mutual characteristic of those I collected is the headband, symbolic of idiong, which is decorated inwards 3 of the 4 examples. The individualized features of Akpan Ekpo commonly limited a royal, serene temperament (Figs. 1, 3). (Figs. 1 as well as 3 omitted) Occasionally, however, he is portrayed as tough, cynical, or mean, to remind people how he regards wrongdoers. The graphic symbol of i Akpan Ekpo mask I collected was seen past times my informants as an evil old human being whose unquestioned say-so derives partly from his reputation for unpredictability, Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 2d mask was characterized as an "uncompromising as well as stubborn old man, but fair." Another was "tough, royal, as well as fair." The final (Fig. 2) was said to live "tough, mean, as well as brutal." (Fig. 2 omitted)
Adiaha Unak ("Fearsome First Daughter") (Figs. 4-6) enforces monastic enjoin within the hamlet nether the command of Akpan Ekpo. (Figs. 4-6 omitted) Usually many Adiaha Unak appear at the same time. Less individualized than Akpan Ekpo, this character's macabre epitome is typically conveyed through physical deformity. Carrying weapons such as bows as well as arrows, swords, machetes, as well as guns, they correspond the spirits of strong as well as heroic men who were killed at a immature age, maybe inwards war. Adiaha Unak ship many protective talismans on their masks as well as roughly their necks, arms, as well as legs. To have on this mask is the destination of most immature men who belong to Ekpo; commonly 20-45 years of age, they are the bravest as well as most able bodied members of the society. The mask inwards Figure 6 holds a manilla inwards its mouth, a symbol of bravery. Introduced inwards the sixteenth century, manillas were i of the early on forms of coin amid the Ibibio (Eyo 1979:61). Most important, they refer to i of the early on functions of Ekpo as an agent of the chief: the collection of taxes.
Nkubia is similar to Adiaha Unak but functions primarily inwards conflicts betwixt villages. He is regarded as beingness almost mad--completely uncontrollable as well as thus peculiarly dangerous. His madness is believed to live partially derived from the tree from which the mask is carved. The nkubia tree is the domicile identify of the spirits of youths who died accidentally. According to divination, these spirits, unsettled because of the mode of death, rose from the grave to reside inwards the tree.
Akpan Ekpo calls upon Nkubia only inwards times of neat crisis, when the hamlet is seriously threatened. He is an added weapon, a demo of strength. Society members, especially those from some other village, would human face upward Adiaha Unak but non Nkubia. Even other masked Ekpo fearfulness him. In the past times he was e'er accompanied past times Akpan Ekpo or Adiaha Unak, often tethered alongside a long rope. Akpan Ekpo controls Nkubia through intricate incantations as well as powerful charms.
This masked graphic symbol is infrequently seen today; some years he does non appear at all. Perhaps it is because in that location are fewer intervillage conflicts inwards which he plays his principal role, but it is also truthful that he is unpopular: people fearfulness that they volition take on the madness associated alongside him.
Nkubia masks are intended to live fifty-fifty to a greater extent than frightening than those of Adiaha Unak. In add-on to exposed teeth (Fig. 7), they may also receive got the neat fangs of a ferocious beast of the forest. (Fig. 7 omitted) The hurting of sticks driven into his human face especially induces Nkubia into madness (Fig. 8). (Fig. 8 omitted)
In contrast to Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia, Udo Ekpo, which serves the senior grades (do agency "second"), is friendly as well as benign. He commonly goes out lonely as well as is meant non to harass people but rather to reinforce Adiaha Unak's demands for law as well as order. This role is commonly played past times an older man child who volition acquire an Adiaha Unak. There are liable to live a fair number of this junior mask inwards a hamlet at whatever i time.
The faces of Udo Ekpo are to a greater extent than naturalistic as well as fifty-fifty child-like than those of the preceding characters (Fig. 9). (Fig. ix omitted) Their polish faces as well as opened upward eyes create an impression of innocence. Hairstyles are emphasized. The minor heads sometimes carved atop the masks of Nkubia as well as Udo Ekpo are non markers of degree or rank, but rather are protective images that symbolize the inseparable connecter betwixt the living as well as the dead.
Ukpaka Ekpo (called Ekong past times the Anang) is the entry role inwards the Ekpo society. The give-and-take ukpaka agency "useless person," i who is non really tough or quick-witted. Ukpaka Ekpo are servants who go out to beg coin as well as nutrient from everybody. The thespian tend to live a picayune younger than those who play Udo Ekp--usually boys 11-13 years of age. Nonmembers, the uninitiated, as well as fifty-fifty women may come upward into unopen contact alongside Ukpaka Ekpo. Like Udo Ekpo's, the human face of Ukpaka Ekpo is naturalistic as well as childlike, alongside wide-open eyes, but it is maybe fifty-fifty less sophisticated inwards appearance as well as graphic symbol (Fig. 10). (Fig. 10 omitted)
Ekpo society masks acquire to a greater extent than particularized as the mask wearer matures. The characters of Udo Ekpo as well as Ukpaka Ekpo masks are virtually unformed. Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia masks exhibit greater individuality Akpan Ekpo masks are the most individualized, clearly portraying the personality of the wearer.
Carving the Mask
The spirit of an ancestor may live represented past times many masks. Different masks may portray the same spirit as angry, serene, or vigorous. The appearance also varies according to the role to live played. Although these masks are highly individualized, they must convey the full general theme or symbolism of the owner's grade. For example, the personality of Adiaha Unak as well as Nkubia must live angry, fierce, or fearsome. How this aspect is expressed is upward to each artist. The piece of work of a skillful Ibibio carver results from the interplay of the client's view of his ain features as well as strengths as well as the artist's perception of his client's personal characteristics. The artist, who himself must maintain the epitome of the institution, is non an impartial judge.
The creative liberty of Ibibio carvers is peculiarly evident inwards the masks of Akpan Ekpo, each of which has a distinctive character. Since the men who play Akpan Ekpo tin can to a greater extent than often than non afford to pay higher prices, nosotros may presume that these masks are amid the best that Ibibio artists could produce. Those who perform Akpan Ekpo are respected men inwards the community, as well as artists consequently take requests for their masks to a greater extent than seriously than they do the requests for masks of lesser rank. They seek to brand the portrayal reverberate the qualities as well as reputation of the owners as much as possible.
Not every hamlet has a carver, but a unmarried hamlet may boast several. Today most Ibibio carvers of Ekpo masks alive inwards Ikot Ekpene, an Anang town. Though a mask is sometimes included inwards the initiation fee, a society fellow member must commonly committee one. He pays one-half the cost when the monastic enjoin is placed as well as the remaining one-half when the mask is ready to live picked up. The carver may attach raffia to the mask or pigment it alongside charcoal or river sediment (black), ochres or camwood (red), or kaolin (white). Alternatively the client may receive got this done past times some other artist. Most members larn to perform the mask alongside a raffia attachment.
The mask is strung alongside raffia at the get-go of each Ekpo season; during the off flavour it is hung, minus its fiber, on a identify unit of measurement shrine or a hamlet shrine inwards the sacred bush, close the identify where Ekpo sessions are held. No women or boys are supposed to go close them.(7) To appease the spirits of the masks, the native MD pours a libation of human or creature blood, chicken feathers, as well as xanthous ochre over the masks before they are used again.
figure 7
With the exception of the Nkubia character, the sort of wood used for carving a mask is non fixed. The ukot (palm wine) tree, whose wood is really calorie-free inwards weight, is the most widely used, especially for large masks. Cork wood (Musanga smithii) is also often chosen. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 mask that volition receive got carved permanent particular requires a denser variety such as iroko (Chlorophora excelsa), ebony (Diopyros), or mahogany (Swietenia).
The woodcarver offers a sacrifice to the tree before felling it. Afterwards a chunk of wood is carried to an isolated hut where it is carved; the hut is inwards the bush close the hamlet shrine as well as off limits to nonmembers as well as women. The artist's conception of the mask is guided past times either an old mask to live duplicated or the client's verbal description. Most carvers piece of work without using whatever drawings. In the foremost stage of carving, machetes as well as chisels are used to petroleum out the features of the mask. In the 2d stage, the mask is dried slow to prepare its surface for smoothing alongside the ukouk leaf. Then, using a knife as well as scraper, the creative somebody carves the face, characteristic past times characteristic from top to bottom, as well as sands the piece. The adjacent pace is painting-and attaching headgear as well as raffia.
Figure 8
The mask is non consummate when it leaves the hands of the carver: it must live consecrated through rituals performed nether the supervision of Akpan Ekpo, which include libations to propitiate the ancestors as well as a sacrifice to the mask's newly adopted spirit.
Morality as well as the Masks
John Messenger examines the distinction betwixt good/beautiful (mfon) as well as ugly/evil (idiok) Ekpo masks (1973:121-23). According to Messenger, a deceased somebody who had led a good, moral life is represented past times a beautiful mask when he visits his family; as well as i who had led an evil life is impersonated past times an ugly mask. Messenger's explanation of the distinction betwixt skillful as well as evil is accurate. I receive got found, however, that the representation of these concepts inwards mask utilization is oriented to a greater extent than toward the thought of justice, which is the reason of Ibibio morality, than toward the ancestor's moral qualities. The human relationship betwixt Ekpo as well as the community does non depend significantly on how a mask looks but rather on whether the laws of the community receive got been obeyed or violated. When a masked Ekpo shoots a adult woman or a nonmember alongside his bow, it is non because the Ekpo is ugly or wild, but because these people receive got left their houses on an Ekpo day, which is viewed as an human activity of defiance as well as disrespect for authority. In assuming the spirit of the ancestors, the wearer of an Ekpo mask executes the collective wishes of the community's forefathers. If an private violates community morality, his activity causes concern to all forefathers inwards full general as well as to his ain ancestors inwards particular.
figure 9
Thus each Ekpo carries messages of skillful volition for skillful behavior, as well as sick volition for wrongdoing. Its forbidding appearance warns of the unmistakable consequences of violation. In other words, the threat of evil is used to ensure good. Akpan Ekpo as well as the hamlet main utilization both beautiful as well as ugly masks as messengers. The masks' actions are specifically directed toward the maintenance of law as well as order. The hard problem for Akpan Ekpo is to regulate the excesses of Ekpo characters inwards the functioning of these duties. If, for example, an Ekpo enters a person's premises to harass or hurt someone, he is held accountable; Akpan Ekpo may fine him or suspend him from wearing his masks. From the inside, the society is a really disciplined organization.
The Mask Carver
Ultimately the artists who carve the masks are responsible for creating the psychological human relationship betwixt masked Ekpo as well as hamlet members. By calling upon sure widely recognized metaphors, the artists evoke the sentiments desired past times the members of the surreptitious society. They create images of fearfulness as a agency to command as well as manipulate the people. The intimidating behavior of mask wearers reinforces the artistic effort. On seeing characters similar Adiaha Unak or Nkubia, fifty-fifty from a distance, nonmembers of the society run for safety. Their appearance is a alert to every somebody inwards the hamlet to conduct inwards an orderly way or human face swift reprisal.
figure 10
The creative somebody knows his people. He knows that they obey hamlet rules only if they fearfulness the consequences of disobedience. The masks must live frightening inwards monastic enjoin to invoke the threat of forcefulness as well as say-so necessary for the masked characters to maintain order. Artistic talent inwards such circumstances is measured past times the carver's success inwards accomplishing this artistic cum socially defined objective. The successful Ibibio carver also demonstrates that fine art is a universal language, or at to the lowest degree that metaphors of the Ibibio are shared past times non-Ibibio. When the latter regard Nkubia as well as Adiaha Unak masks as frightening or horrible, as well as then the creative somebody has made his point. His destination is for every viewer to react inwards just this manner.
Ekpo images of powerfulness as well as invincibility, as well as its symbols of retribution as well as punishment, are expressed as well as maintained through the works of the carvers. Upon their shoulders falls the social responsibleness of creating effective instruments for the maintenance of law as well as order. Their talent cannot live fully appreciated without agreement the history as well as cultural values of their community. In Ibibio, as inwards other parts of Africa, the people relate to many aspects of life through art.(http://academic.csuohio.edu/curnowk/curnowk/html/akpan.html)
The Dynamics of Music as well as Culture inwards Traditional Ibibio
Society of Nigeria
Ekpa, Aniedi E. - Department of Music, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom
State, Nigeria
E-mail: aniekpa2002@yahoo.com
GSM: +2347031183785
Traditional African music is music inwards oral tradition. It is that tradition inwards which music as well as aspects of music making are passed downward from generation to generation past times give-and-take of mouth, or through empirical observation as well as imitation. Fundamentally, it is a collective art, a communal belongings whose qualities are shared as well as experienced past times all members of the society. And until recently, this music was organized as an integral component of community life within the framework of recreational, social, cultural as well as political institutions. But it was never an object for trade; rather it catered for that aspect of traditional beliefs, ideas as well as wisdom.
However, the traditional Ibibio does non only regard music as a repository of traditional knowledge as well as beliefs, but also as a agency he tin can make out as well as found a constant, uninterrupted link alongside the spirit world as well as the supernatural.
To the Ibibio, music as well as life are inseparable. There is music for many of the activities of everyday life as good as music whose texts limited his attitudes to life: his hopes as well as fears, his thoughts as well as beliefs. Since music is so intimately jump alongside Ibibio worldview or cosmology, it as well as then becomes symbolic, spiritually strong as well as situational.
Occasional musical activities
It is a mutual exercise inwards traditional Ibibio society to comprise music into events of the life cycle. Because of the sacred nature of each event, the types as well as forms of music associated alongside each are socially restricted. Social musical activities limited the normative values of Ibibio people. Its enactment often reflects the occupational, secular as well as social beliefs of the people, as well as displays what the society values most.
Most Ibibio social musical activities concern themselves principally alongside the handling of themes of chastity as well as other adorable virtues. The theme of pride of maidenhood is treated inwards Mbopo (fattening) songs as well as dances. It centres on the chastity of the initiative prior to her marriage. Virginity as well as chastity of an Ibibio miss prior to her union bestow accolade as well as pride peculiarly on the girl, her parents, her fiancé as well as the community inwards general. But inwards this 21st century, what is the situation? Is it silent a virtue adorned as well as admired past times us?
Abang (pot) trip the calorie-free fantastic is performed during the ceremonial outing of the initiative from the fattening room (ufok mbopo), where she has been confined for months. While inwards this seclusion, she is fed alongside all the traditional delicacies that would brand her plump as a pot (abang), from which the hollo of the trip the calorie-free fantastic is derived. There are other initiative dances, which are performed on moonlit nights to welcome the novel Moon as good as for communal amusement as well as relaxation. Notable amid them is Abinsi dance. In the past, the trip the calorie-free fantastic was a traditional wooing trip the calorie-free fantastic inwards which immature men who were intending to hook upward alongside participated past times picking a trip the calorie-free fantastic mate from amid the woman somebody dancers. The miss of his alternative was commonly his intended hereafter wife. The virile somebody suitors attended the trip the calorie-free fantastic alongside lanterns, which was emblematic of the clear vision that would enable them pick the correct girl.
Nollywod actress Nse Ikpe-Etim, an Ibibio native from Akwa Ibom province inwards her union attire alongside her groom.
Throughout the performance, dialogue is never used. Every communication is past times miming as well as romantic gestures, which are easily understood as well as interpreted into verbal linguistic communication past times the audience. The theme of their songs centres on social control. When the songs are good rendered they serve as the community intelligence medium on of import happenings inwards as well as roughly the community. Comments may live made close a beautiful miss who is promiscuous; the aging adult woman who marries a human being many years her junior; the prominent human being inwards the hamlet who is a disciplinarian past times solar daytime as well as an armed robber past times night. Today, this trip the calorie-free fantastic is performed mainly for pleasance as well as relaxation.
Birth as well as union are celebrated alongside music inwards Ibibio society. Puberty musical groups perform at such ceremonies, treating texts of those songs as birds of passage‟ for the occasion.
In add-on to the events of the life cycle, in that location are social groups such as warrior organizations as well as guild groups, whose memberships are based on gender as well as age. The music performed past times these organizations is reflective of their roles inwards their respective societies. Ukwa, a state of war trip the calorie-free fantastic musical performance, is commonly staged to depict a band of traditional soldiers who protect the community from the enemies. Their songs are fast as well as animated. Before the commencement of the performance, the Ekong Ukwa masquerade
(war skull masquerade)- mkpokporo, inwards its dark flowing attire emerges from the nearby bush, holding a sudden machete inwards his hand. It as well as then runs circular town heading for the palace, singing inwards a recitative style inwards falsetto tones, to herald the arrival of the performers.
One of import thing alongside this functioning is that it cannot come upward to an halt without bloodshed. This makes the functioning really dreadful, but spectacular at the same time. As the functioning goes on, the drumming
becomes vigorous inwards tempo as well as sends the dancers into a province of excitement as well as valour, or to the extent that when they engage inwards mock- battle, they often sustain bodily injuries.
Ubom-Isong (land canoe), is a dance-music performed past times girls, reflective of a people whose problem is fishing. It is a miniature portrayal of the supplication to the ocean goddess to create total the line-fishing nets alongside seafood. Each of the dancers wears a hoop on the waist all of which are strung together to shape a boat. They sing as they engage inwards mock paddling:
Nkà mì éwàt údèng (My mates paddle canoe)
Àmì nwàt íkpók étò (I paddle bark of wood)
Àyà---ó (Aya---o)
Funeral dirges shape i of the social vocal repertoires. The organisation is commonly based on gender. When it is certified that a ruler is dead, the talking drum sends the message across to the people. Women's grouping sings their dirges separately nether a competent leader inwards the family. If no such leader is found, the identify unit of measurement hires someone as well as charges her alongside the responsibility.
Iban Isong trip the calorie-free fantastic is a women's trip the calorie-free fantastic past times a women‟s grouping responsible for fighting virile somebody chauvinism (Ndok ufok ebe) directed against their members. They rebuke as well as warn virile somebody members of the community against disrespect for their women folk. As they do non tolerate whatever indiscriminate utterance as well as blackmail of women past times men, whatever human being charged for such offense is given a fair trial past times the clan's council as well as penalized if found guilty. Subsequent involvement inwards the same offense is regarded as deliberate, as well as the society must seek redress. This they do past times visiting him nude at nighttime inwards his room, alongside singing as well as dancing. Writing close their activities inwards the society Udo submits:
This gild is really strong inwards the riverine areas of Ibibio, for
example, amid the Efik, Etoi, (sic) as well as Uruan etc, any
human being who abused a adult woman past times talking close her sexual
anatomy was deemed to receive got committed a grave crime
against Iban Isong Esit. The aggrieved adult woman commonly took
the case, privately to the Iban Isong Esit... (Udo,
1983:153).
When the solar daytime for punishing the culprit is fixed, the women start to spotter his motion until they brand sure that he has gone to slumber inwards his theatre that night. Then the women would surround his theatre as well as wake him up. When he comes out of his theatre to regard who was calling him, they would brand him sit down inwards a primal as well as conspicuous place, piece all of them strip themselves naked as well as stand upward before him, forcing the human being to aspect at them. Their faces as well as bodies painted dark as well as holding objects made inwards the shape of a woman's uterus in
their hands. They pelting curses upon him as well as telephone phone upon the gods as well as goddesses to kill him whenever he attempts to brand dearest alongside whatever woman. The human being who falls into this sort of problem commonly dies presently after the see past times these women.
Ebre trip the calorie-free fantastic was performed during the catamenia of harvesting of novel yams. Taken its hollo from a bulbous root of yam variety, women were allocated this yam to flora inwards their farms as well as took component inwards the celebration. Each adult woman was expected to go to the farm as well as harvest this yam as well as introduce it to her hubby inwards a symbolic way as a grade of respect. Members of this association were women alongside high plane of morality. Virgins only were allowed to bring together as members. No thief or adulterer was allowed to bring together the group. They were also concerned close indignities of women past times men.
Recreational music activities
Recreational music activities bask the largest variety of musical types as well as forms inwards Ibibio society. This is due to the fact that they are neither ritually nor ceremonially bound. They are performed non only for evening
entertainment, but also on other occasions of a festive or social nature. Songs as well as dances similar mkpok-eto, nsasak, nsa-isong etc, are all recreational musical performances.
Evening musical entertainments characteristic recreational songs performed past times the king's wives inwards the palace or court. As noted past times E. N. Amaku (1954), the king's wives perform praise songs for their hubby as they accompany themselves alongside household utensils as well as pollex pianos (mbutu). Each married adult woman supplies a phrase as well as punctuates it alongside her name.
Gilbert Rouget experienced something similar, at the Porto- Novo Palace. He writes:
... the courtroom music most often heard is performed by
the wives of the King .... At the palace as good as inwards these
dissimilar houses, the King‟s or Chief‟s wives, nether the
leadership of an elder, forms a grouping inwards accuse of ajogan
music. Four wives chosen from amid the youngest stand
inwards forepart of the others as well as sing as well as trip the calorie-free fantastic (Rouget,
1971:30).
Folktales close acts of bravery are commonly recounted. The men at the courtroom accompany the functioning alongside drums, piece the women trip the calorie-free fantastic as well as the King gives them drinks inwards appreciation. The king’s daughters, sisters as well as woman somebody house- helps are organized past times the wives to entertain the King alongside Ikpaya dance. Here, dancers wearing clothing inwards raffia costumes as well as sing as well as dance.
Most recreational songs could live heard at festivals as appendages to the main music lawsuit of the occasion. It is mutual to bring out them performed at funerals just to add together color as well as furnish amusement to the audience. Wherever recreational musical grouping is found, they are only in that location to entertain as well as receive got no ritual intentions.
The root of some recreational musical groups inwards Ibibioland is hard to describe piece their instrumental repertoire are non standardized, due to influences of acculturation from the neighbouring ethnic groups--Efik, Ibo, Quas, Ekoi, as well as Ejagham. There exists some amount of interchange betwixt these societies as well as dissimilar linguistic communication groups, especially inwards these areas where social interaction has been greatest as well as prolonged. Some recreational groups whose memberships are drawn from the ethnic grouping afore-mentioned receive got hybrid vocal texts, styles of dancing as well as drumming. The argue for this is non also far to seek, nor is this out of order. Of all the musical activities, recreational activities are the most prone to diffusion. The creation of musical types for recreational utilization is a continuous process. New types outpouring upward through the leadership of creative individuals whenever people start to acquire tired of the usual ones. It is inwards this sphere that innovations inwards the utilization of instruments, inwards styles of dancing, inwards styles of singing are foremost tried out.
Since recreational musical activities are non socially restricted, except where they are considered to live harmful or detrimental to the moral textile of the community or society, they are often transitory. They come upward as well as go alongside the craze of time. Musical types that are respectable as well as sufficiently attractive inwards style as well as content tend to live practiced over a long catamenia of time.
Incidental or functional musical activities
Incidental music activities inwards Ibibio community, similar inwards whatever other African society, are organized as a concurrent activity. That is, it serves as background music or catharsis for the execution of sure grouping activities as well as domestic chores such as grinding, pounding, mowing, mopping, nursing a babe alongside lullabies such as the following:
Éyén dáíyá ndíên, éyén dáíyá ndíên
Nkékà íkìbê mbá, ákâ mbá ásáká ìtá
Baby slumber now, babe slumber now
I went to pluck pear, but pear is non ripe
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 skillful babe sitter is commonly praised inwards lullabies
During informal story telling sessions, children as well as parents alike sing songs to relax as well as make the evening. Fishermen sing piece mending their nets piece farmers sing to accompany their piece of work routine. Individuals who sit down inwards a marketplace identify or walk on the street to hawk their wares salve their boredom or sun--burnt passion alongside music. Below is a typical fishermen‟s song:
Sóng úbók wàt ìnyàng (Row fast, row fast)
Sóng úbók wàt ìnyàng (Row fast, row fast)
Ké édìm kédí-ó-ó-ó-ó (Rain is coming-o-o-o-o)
Sóng úbók wàt ìnyàng (Row fast, pelting is coming)
Ké ‘dìm kédí (is coming)
Sometimes the texts of songs may non necessarily reverberate the particular piece of work beingness undertaken; for functional songs comprehend a broad make of topics such as self-pity, death, rivalry, hope, disappointment, sadness, love, theft, poverty as well as so on. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 adult woman who is mowing may sing a vocal that satires some other adult woman who was caught stealing.
Ritual-Ceremonial musical activities
Every faith needs a way of affirming its fundamental spiritual, philosophical as well as cultural principles which receive got been handed downward inwards writing or past times give-and-take of oral fissure over hundreds of years. This is necessary if the deeper sense demanded of a faith is to proceed to live fulfilled as well as the faith itself is to proceed to be as a holistic scheme within a physical care for of social development.
The consciousness of ritual/ceremonial musical activities inwards Ibibio land is based on shared ideas, which concern both the interpretations of its religious thought as well as the concrete realization thereof inwards ritual situations. This as well as then expresses itself as cultural manifestations inwards music, trip the calorie-free fantastic as well as linguistic communication or code. The private elements of such manifestations-the repertoire, musical instruments as well as terminology, acquire inwards possible for „outsiders‟ to recognize its members for the purpose of identification or differentiation.
Ritual musical types are the most restrictive of all. As mentioned above, it is a agency through which the private or grouping may reaffirm as well as re-enact the events of antiquity. In a typical ritual situation, the grouping stands naked as well as unashamed, as it were before its gods, goddesses, ancestors, woman parent Earth as well as the elemental forces. Most ritual activities are two-fold: private as well as public.
Private rituals are restricted to members of the priesthood as well as designated elders of the community as well as may utilization picayune or no music. For instance, when a King (Obong) wants to worship his personal god or pay homage to the clan‟s ancestral spirits, only the palace priests as well as main drummer are allowed to live present.
This is a ritual occasion for personal as well as private rituals, as well as sacerdotal observances that do non require the total participation of a ritual assembly; for these rituals are concerned alongside the affirmation of Obong’s structural
relationships alongside the supernatural. Ritual materials-songs, symbolic utilization of musical instruments, dances, incantations, prayers, as well as other activities are considered as classified knowledge, which cannot live found or placed at populace domain. For at no fourth dimension inwards the long history of mankind has such stuff been made accessible to non-initiates or fifty-fifty available for study as well as analysis. At the plane of ritual functioning nosotros are considering, the materials relate to this grouping at the most profound levels of their being.
It must non live ruled out that the selection of as well as utilization of music may depend to a large extent on the sort of rite as well as whether it is conceived as private or public. For in that location are customary rites that shape component of the normal behaviour, rites incorporated into celebrations as well as ceremonies, including confirmatory
as well as status-marking ceremonies, kinship ceremonies as well as commemorative festivals as good as rituals of worship. On the alternative of ritual materials, Nketia affirms that:
Since the symbolic transformation that takes identify inwards ritual
is constituted past times activity which draws on sound, kinesic and
visual codes, music which heightens the intensity of
emotion generated past times a rite or integrates the aural, the
kinesic as well as the visual similarity enhances the ritual
process. Accordingly, the music for a ritual occasion may
include non only contemplative music such as chants and
other music for listening, but also music that stimulates
personal involvement inwards a ritual occasion through
participation as well as interaction (Nketia, 1984:112).
Ritual activities such as annual harvest or commemorative festivals, deification of gods, warding off of evil influences inwards the community, are considered populace as well as members of the community are required to participate. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 sort of shared knowledge as well as sense takes identify here, although the forms as well as types of musical activities identified alongside such rituals may live socially restricted. Based on the particular ritual beingness performed, the alternative of musical instruments as well as vocal texts must reverberate the significance of the occasion. In most cases, the musical instruments are considered to live the physical representations of the gods beingness worshipped as well as are accordingly revered as such. Such god as Fri-Obukpong, which literary translated agency „blow the horn‟, is induced past times the audio of horn for its affective presence. It is for this argue that ritual drums used inwards Ekpe, Obon as well as Ekpo cults often create possession, as the gods are akin to the audio of these instruments.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 similar sense is reported amid the Shona of Zimbabwe, where ritual events called bira devoted to the ancestors are held periodically. The principal musical instrument played on such occasions is the plucked idiophone called mbira dza vadzimu. Paul Berliner reports that:
In the context of the bira, the people believe the mbira to
receive got the powerfulness to projection its audio into the heavens,
bridging the world of the living as well as the world of the spirits
as well as thereby attracting the attending of the ancestors. In the
hands of skillful musicians the mbira is able to push clit spirits
downward to Earth to possess mediums (Berliner, 1978:190).
Musical instruments, which are used for these performances are considered to live the physical representations as well as characteristics of the gods beingness worshipped. Such musical instruments similar horn are used past times ndem priests as a telephone phone to worship. Mmurua (ritual rattle) as well as Ekomo Ekpe (ekpe peel drum) are used inwards Ekpe musical performances only.There is a really sparse line of demarcation betwixt ritual as well as ceremonial musical activities inwards Ibibio society. The ceremonial musical activities may live divided into 2 categories. The foremost consists of musical types used for populace rites, which may live observed as a follow-up to consummate surreptitious rites.
When a King (Obong) is to live installed, populace rites involving music for enthronement are performed before all to witness as well as participate. If the functioning rites are without whatever interruption from the participants or the gods, the Obong is taken into the sacred sleeping room for the surreptitious component of the rites. At this point, the grouping relates to the spirit world through high-ranking priests as well as traditional leaders, who are regarded as the representatives of the spiritual forces. They perform the remaining ceremonial songs as well as dances until the whole ceremony is completed.
Since traditional leaders play spiritual, priestly functions, political as well as social roles, as well as human activity as the pin of social cohesion as good as intermediaries betwixt the gods as well as their people, they protect the musical types as well as instruments identified alongside their office. These high-ranking priests also receive got their musical instruments, but no such musical instruments or music may live used exterior their designated roles without the expressed permission of the ruler, as their musical instruments are regarded as component of the State regalia.
Source:http://afrrevjo.net/journals/multidiscipline/Vol_6_no_2_art_8.pdf
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