As far as the people of Obah are concerned, masquerades are ancestral spirits who periodically visit their living forebears in masquerade forms. Their visits are regarded as spiritual interventions to the world of the living and as a result are highly venerated. They are a symbolic resurrection of the ancestors.
Every society has a belief in something in life, a belief in death, a belief in life after death. These beliefs are instrumental components of culture, and they influence the disposition of a community /people . These principles could be said to be a way to understanding “ death ” a phenomenon that has since plagued every man and seems unfathomable. It is also a way of understanding the cosmos and the role of death in life . The West African society though having a practice of dual religion still performs its African traditional belief system, one that is rooted in the existence of the ancestors through oral tradition. This traditional conviction is hinged on the philosophy of life after death, insinuating that death is not the end. Thus, this translates into the Masquerading culture earlier stated and practised by the Obah’s.
Ekwu is a traditional
masquerade of the Obah people of northern middle-birth Nigeria. This is what is believe as the ancestral spirit and they are performed only by the males spirit and are say to appears from the ground in exclusive secret place within the community and involve the use of beautiful, elaborate, colorful designed costumes that are meant to invoke ancestral into action in the physical world. They appears from their secret place after a long enchantment in their anticipation, their appearance is like the appearance of the spirit it shocked people with fear and they honour and celebrate them as they move from one compound to the other dancing and entertaining the entire community, children, young and old follow them from one community to the other; chanting and rejoicing running after them.
#Written by Idris Natty Ehi
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