My diary game. How I Spent My Day on Saturday (19/03/22) seeing Ekpo masquerades by ityfrank

I woke early on Saturday as usual so I can go for my early morning jogging. I said my prayers, put on my gears, it was still dark when I left. There were few cars on d road, and few people jogging from the opposite direction.
I jogged for about 30 minutes and came back.
I cleaned up the house, especially the bathroom and wash my clothes. When I was done, I was very tired. I had my brunch and then lay down to check some messages and also shared my siesta.
When I woke up, I went to have my lesson with my boy.

I alighted from the bus and had to walk a few streets to get to where the boy leaves, as I turned the corner, I saw a large crowd moving towards me. First, I was scared: is there a riot? Then I looked again and I saw masquerades! Then the tall ones emerged from a corner. They had in the company like three different kinds of masquerade. Ekpo ntukeyen, Obio Òkpò and others I could not pick The very tall ones are the Obio Òkpò. (Obio means community, while Òkpò means legs; but you know in a compound word, the meanings of the individual words that make the compound word don't, usually, mean the same thing as the compound word itself).

I stopped to ask what the whole ceremony was about, because masquerades don't just come out.
I was told that a chief in a neighbouring village died, and was buried, that it's now time for them to carry out the traditional rites for his burial. (That's a picture of the chief carried by one of the deceased daughters). So they came to that village to pay homage to the chief of that village...

Ekpo masquerades are believed to be the spirits of our ancestors that havr awoken to interact with their kinsmen. So you see them looking dark, covered with charcoal and earth because they just came back from the death. They wear mask carved from wood.
There are very dangerous ones that women and children are forbidden from watching and follow, and incidentally, women and children love to watch them so much, but they do so from a great distance or in hidden places. If they are caught, they are made to pay fines. While for grown-up males who are not initiated, if you go up close to them or pass on the road while they are passing, pretending to be an initiate, they will test you by giving you what is called, "nsibidi", a kind of puzzle drawn on the ground that you are supposed to unravel, some are signed and gesticulations. If you can't unravel it, it means you're not an initiate, so they will place you on a fine and you are forced to be initiated.
Also even initiate can miss to unravel this puzzles as they are numerous, and they too will also be placed on a fine.
Their fine always includes a goat. When they come, they only take the head and leave the body for you. The masquerade cutting the head must do so with just one swing of the machete otherwise he will placed on a fine too.
This is a clear picture of Ekpo masquerades:

imagesource

Ekpo masquerades, like the one in this image are the real scary ones. They carry machete and some even carry bow and arrow, and they shoot with their bow, and beat with the side of the machete. I think this is the part that made Akwa Ibom state government prohibit their operations some years ago.
So we now have this harmless ones that are just doing their traditional rites, and children and women can follow even closely. Though some parts of Akwa Ibom still have the dangerous ones.
There are different types of ekpo masquerades across Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, some include:

• Eka Ekpo (mother masquerade)
• Imuum Ekpo (silence masquerade)
• Akpan Ekpo ( first born masquerade)
• Ayara Ekpo ( wild masquerade)
• Ekpo ntukeyen (children masquerade), etc. This the ones that accompanied the abio Òkpò that I saw that day.

Finallyy, I got to my little boys house and went straight to business as he had exams the following day.

I later when to play snooker and I met one of my students I taught in SS 2 some years ago. He had graduated from the university and he's now a big boy, and was even smoking cigarette (Smiles). We even played against him. Inside of me I knew it's game I must win. So I played my best and I won him.

I later got home round 9:30pm and slept. So in conclusion, I had a very busy and fulfilled day. All thanks to God.
Thank you all for reading through my day's activities.

Special thanks to:

@focusnow
@steemalive
@ngoenyi
@ijelady
@mesola