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Article: The Otsa Festival of the Ekperi: Igbo age-grade masquerades on the west bank of the Niger?
- Article from:
- African Arts
- Article date:
- December 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Regents of the University of California. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Ekperi speak an Edo language and trace their origins to the Edo kingdom of Benin in their orthodox history. Nevertheless, they and other northern Edo peoples living in eastern Nigeria's Etsako local government area share such cultural institutions as title associations and masking traditions with their riverain Igala and Igbo neighbors, who live to the east, across the Niger River. Masking traditions tend to be associated with age sets, as among the northern Igbo, and stylistically the masquerades reflect eastern prototypes. Horned masks symbolize male aggression; carved wooden or appliqued cloth masks display elaborately coiffed hairstyles of nineteenth-century ...