Arts

As Imo State marks the 2022 World Day for Cultural Diversity and Dialogue on Tuesday, Commissioner of Tourism, Creative Arts and Dialogue, Mazi Uche Ohia (PhD), has called for mutual understanding of cultural differences among the diverse tribes of the world.

The event was held at FSP, Mbari, Owerri, with some government functionaries, lovers of culture, arts and tourism gracing it.

Ohia emphasized that when people across the world understand, respect cultures, languages of others there will be peace, unity and development in all facets of the world, saying no culture is greater or better than the other, but uniqueness of culture or tradition matter most.

He stressed that there are unique differences in every culture even as God created all humans uniquely, pointing out that the problem is how to achieve unity in diversity for the overall development of Imo State, country and the world.

According to the Commissioner, “there are many kind of masquerades so do languages and no culture is greater or better than the other, for God made every tribe great and unique. It is better that we understand these cultures and their uniqueness. The double weddings: white and traditional weddings are waste of resources. Hence we must understand that Igbo culture is complete as English or Yoruba cultures”.

Ohia, while urging people to be proud and confident to observing and showcasing their cultural heritages wherever they see themselves, commended Governor Hope Uzodimma for supporting the event as well as promoting and sustaining cultural heritages of Imo State.

Hinting that the event which was suppose to hold on 22nd May 2022 in line with the directives of the United Nations could not take place due to exigencies of political activities in the state, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture, Theodore Uzoma Nwaokonkwo, observed that the ceremony was rich and spectacular, thanking all for coming and participating effectively.

The theme of the event is “Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development”. The event was organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture in collaboration with the Imo State Council for Arts and Culture, ISCAC.

However, drama and dance by Omenimo Dance Troupe were performed to entertain the audience who called on government to invest hugely in tourism, culture and creative arts with a view to strengthening peace, comfort and development across the world.

Every Igbo man or woman is supposed to know certain aspects of his or her life. These aspects refer to his spiritual foundation which is his Chi, his Agwu, his Ikenga and by extension Nde Mmiri. These are the components that drive a man. They either push you back or propel you forward.

Meaning of Chi:
This is the indwelling spirit that decides the inside of you. It is this your Chi that understands your journey, that knows the hurdles and direction that your journey is supposed to take. It is this your Chi that knows the destination that you are headed to because it is your Chi that came back to earth to fulfill its purpose and occupy the body.

You are not just that physical body but a spirit that resides inside the physical body. It moves the body from the beginning of the journey in this physical body to the end of the journey.

But it is the spirit that is making the journey. The body is just the vehicle. What you are is the chi and the reason we make reference to your Chi because it is what defines the outcome of your existence. It is rooted spiritually individually. This is also the reason we say ‘onye na chi ya’ (everyone and his spirit). All of us have our have the spirits that guides and leads us to see us through no matter what we encounter. It is compulsory that you not only know your Chi but become one with it.

How to know your Chi:
The only way for you to know your Chi is by spiritual consultation called Afa (divination) in Igbo language. Even if your Chi is being revealed to you in the dream you still need to confirm it. In the Afa, the processes would be revealed to you to make sure that you are one with your Chi. Knowing your Chi means knowing the line you came from, that is either from the mother or father side, who you were in your previous lives, your past assignments etc.

This thing will help you to choose what you will do on earth because what you would do on earth depends on what you have come to do and that will help you to open your eyes and minds to your responsibility in this physical life. It is compulsory that you know and become one with your Chi. These things have rituals or rites that must be performed to harness it or make it work in your favour.

Agwu:
The next is Agwu. These things work together. Agwu is normally and variously called the spirit of wisdom, some call it the spirit of knowledge, some call it the spirit of motivation. It is like the brain or mind of your Chi. There are two types of Agwu. There is an Agwu that do not really disturb the person that it possesses.
There is another Agwu that disturbs until something is done or until it is recognized and given a particular position. These are the ways that it manifests. We all have Agwu but few of us have active ones, it makes one behave in certain forms. Sometimes you see one misbehaving doing things that he is not supposed to do.

For example a young man that is supposed to settle down is busy jumping from one woman to another, Most often this is caused by Agwu. A woman that is supposed to get married is rejecting suitors not because she has any specific reason but because she is under an influence she may not know about.
People behaving abnormally often are under the spell of Agwu. Like in the previous case, Afa must look into the case and declare if it is Agwu and declare what can be done. There are two things involved. One is Iru Agwu and Isa Agwu. What one does is dependent on the activeness of the Agwu.

Ikenga:
Ikenga is something that is compulsory for everyman because it means that the power that propels or drives or moves to give you courage to pull through situations. The kind of Ikenga to be presented to you depends on the Chi that you have. Your Chi will speak volumes when it comes to spiritual matters. There are certain things that you may or may not be able to handle because of your Chi.

Chi awotu meaning that all Chi’s are not the same or in same category. People are being led by different circumstances. Your Chi must be in harmony with the Agwu so if it is something that you can do all then you would be able to understand things in high frequency. Ikenga is the symbol of strength and authority, courage.

This is the reason that kingdoms do have their Ikenga. Any man who must excel or progress in life must have an Ikenga. In those days when a man enters age grade the next thing that he will do is to have an Ikenga before he even thinks of joining a masquerade. Each of these passes through a ceremonial ritual to confirm it.

Nde Mmiri:
After Ikenga, there is another one which may not be for all but it is called Nde Mmiri (water spirits). Majority of our people are being disturbed because they have neglected and turned their back from the spirit that dwells in the water. They have turned away from something that should help them instead it becomes something that is tormenting them.

Many of us have wives and husbands in the sea, in the marine kingdom and we need to harness that relationship. We need to fulfill the marriage rites so we can have a good arrangement by the end of the day. Remember that before we came into this physical world we were in the spiritual realm. These are people we were living with, our husbands, our wives in that realm. We did not divorce.

Now that we have entered here the spirit is busy monitoring our movements, the moment it sees you getting to a woman or man, the spirit get jealous showing anger. Since it will not kill you it will start to destroy things around you and torment you, making you to suffer. So you need to do the needful by fulfilling the marriage rites either as a man or woman. You need to give them a position in your life. The Igbo look at the world from both physical and spiritual. They are not ignorant of the spiritual environment that they find themselves.

The problem we have is that when the church came it the eyes and attention our people from their spirituality. Our people have lost everything that makes them Igbo. They no longer think. It is now their bible and pastor that is thinking for them. This is the reason in a discussion with your brother or sister, they will always say that the bible said, my bible says. Does that mean that if the bible did not say it then that is not true.

What I can say is that these scripts that we are reading written by white man is as corrupt as it can be and that is the major problem that we are having. When you tell someone to go and do Nde mmiri he will tell you that it is evil when there is no evil about it. Let us have a proper perspective of these things.

Keep an open mind without bias so you can grasp the point about it. Now you are married to your husband and you travelled to another land. Getting there you want to settle down but the man or woman the other way is still there for you. Instead of you having a problem with the other woman now that you have a new one here you reach out to her in settlement.

What you do is that you have to settle the first one and arrange how to work out things when this one enters. This is about the Nde mmiri which people are running away from but which they cannot avoid. This is ‘apiti uzo ubi'(inescapable) no matter how smart they think because they will unleash their anger on you bringing so many misfortune against the defaulter. So our men and women should face the reality.
This is basically the reason why there are so many frictions in marriages, marriage failures and poor relationships. It can only be remedied by doing what is necessary.

The Igbo term “eze” as regards to the Igbo ontology has as its nearest English equivalent the term “priest”. Eze means priest (priest in this sense means those who specializes and are naturally gifted in divine matters and serves as a mediator between God/the gods and particular Igbo society). Ezeship is something that is believed to be a thing of divine gift, and never a thing to be dragged or contested for.

In a typical Igbo community setting, when things goes wrong and it’s believed to be a divine matter, it is the duty of the priest as a naturally gifted expert on divine matters to intercede for the people. The ezeship has its oldest documented trace in Igbo land to Nri, which the eze nri is referenced as the religious leader of the nri traditional religion, and that is why he’s presently called a priest-king.

An Eze aside his/her divine duties may also be a leader, a guide; he may preside over several gatherings (but not in the sense of an absolute monarch) and sometimes may lead the people to wars.
Over the recent years, Ezeship has been wrongly interpreted to mean kingship, and this was because of the influence and political arrangements of the British which redefined and acknowledged the ezes as traditional “rulers” (kings).

This is in order to achieve their indirect rule in the Igbo territories, and since then ezeship has been politicized removing the essential aspect of it, today it can be contested for even by those who has no divine gift of intercession.
On a probable note, it may be due to this leadership influence bestowed on ezes in most Igbo communities as the eyes of the people that the colonizers found it as being closest to the concept of kingship, and thus this was where the misinterpretation began after they were interpreted to mean kings in English language.

This misinterpretation created a problem of semantics our new Igbo generation finds it difficult to solve. Due to this misinterpretation of eze to mean king in European settings, it became a necessity for many scholars to use the term “king” in reference to the Igbo term “eze” in their academic works, and from there, the misinterpretation gained more ground especially when the medias (Nollywood), and Bible translators adopted that wrong interpretation.

In the book “Arrow of God” Achebe identified Eze ulu as the chief priest of the god, Ulu, worshipped by the six villages of Umuaro. The book begins with Ezeulu and Umuaro fighting against a nearby village, Okperi. The conflict is abruptly resolved when T. K. Winterbottom, the British colonial overseer. However, Eze ulu was a leader and was never defined as an absolute monarchy. Maybe this confusion is because of inability to distinguish between a leader and a ruler.
Some examples of different types of eze in Igbo ontology are; Eze mmuo (Ezema or Eze-mama Nsukka dialect) is a male priest of an Oracle. Eze Nwaanyi is a female priest of an Oracle (recently misinterpreted to be queen) Eze mmiri is the priest of the waters, deals with the spirit of the waters. Eze ani is the priest of the earth, deals with the deities of earth etc.

However, due to how ezeship is believed to be a thing of natural gift in expertness, the term “eze” can also be used metaphorically to designate “the gifted one” in other fields of life, example are; Eze opi; an expert in flute Eze ji; gifted in yam cultivation and harvest. Eze ike (Ezike); gifted with strength
Eze ego; gifted with money etc.

Hence, both the eze as per priesthood and eze in metaphorical sense is connected to the agwu spirit (study agwu for better understanding). It is this agwu that befalls one with these gifts and talents.
Note: ask yourself, if king means a ruler/monarch as many of you may think, then what makes you think a human can be king to the gods/spirits?
Remember there’s ezearo (aro deity), ezema (maa in Nsukka is god) etc.

Also the term “Di” (Dikwu, Dibia, Diani Etc) is also equivalent to “Eze” but that would be explained another day.
This write up is open for critics as critics are the food that grows knowledge. Let’s learn together.

By Mazi Mike Odenigbo

A first time visitor to Amafor Isingwu village in Ohuhu, Umuahia North LGA of Abia State may mistake himself to be at the United States of America’s military base.

This is because of the array of military equipment found inside the spacious compound of the national war museum. The museum located on a slopped landscape of Amafor Isingwu, off the busy Umuahia-Uzuakoli road is a place of history, tourism, technology and research rolled into one.

History of the Museum
Shortly before the fall of Enugu, the then capital of the Biafra, the then head of state of the Biafran nation, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu contacted some foreign builders who together with Biafran engineers built a tunnel and radio station in Umuahia, connecting the tunnel to the part of the place in Umuahia city known as Ojukwu Bunker which served as his secret base.

It was from Umuahia Ojukwu and famous Okoko Ndem broadcast to the world unknown to the members of the Federal Troop. After the end of the civil war in 1970, the country became one again making the facility to lie fallow.
But in 1988, the government of General Ibrahim Babangida developed a new policy on preservation of national monuments. It was in that year that Amafor-Isingwu facility was chosen to be upgraded to National War Museum, where instruments of war used by both the federal Military troop and those used by the Biafran army would be put on display.

The museum was later commissioned by the Federal Government in 1989 after its completion and has since then received over 5 million visitors drawn from various background and discipline.

Home to military hardware
A trip by the News Echo to the museum did not yield the desired result on the first day as staff on duty said the head of the Museum known as the Curator was not on seat to respond to the newspaper’s questions concerning the place. But a new day was fixed and this time, the Curator was present and happy to receive the reporter.
She directed a male and female staff to take the reporter on a guided tour of the museum.

At the spacious compound, the lush green field was well mowed while military instruments like ship, bomber planes, fighter jets, military tanks, bomb-frames, machine guns, anti-aircraft guns were seen on display, beautifully arranged and kept under roof shields, the irony remained that many lives were cut short by those arsenals on display during the 1967-1970 war.

Also on display are Biafran famous Ogbunigwe, locally manufactured bomb, equally found at the museum were a radio transmitter and refinery belonging to the defunct Biafran government. NIGERIAN NAVY SHIPS (NNS) and other war boats which were used during civil war are also on display while another side of the museum has on display Nigeria Air force (102) and Nigerian Air force (108) and other fighters, which were used by the federal troop.

The museum guide explained to the reporter that most of the equipment used by the Biafran army during the civil war were manufactured locally by the Biafrans while some equipment belonging to the federal troops were captured by the Biafran from the federal troops during the war. He gave an instance of the capture of a military tank belonging to the federal troop at Uzuakoli by the Biafran army. Debris of a plane which crashed during the war is also on display at the museum.

It is Africa’s number one tourism point- Curator
The administrative head of National War Museum, Umuahia, Ms. Mercy Aduaka during the interview with News Echo in her office declared the place as the biggest tourism centre in Africa. According to the Curator, the museum receives researchers from across the globe, with tourists and researchers from the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and those from various African countries making the place their tourism and research Centre of choice.
She added that the inner section of the museum is endowed with a gallery of military portraits and instruments of military warfare, tracing military genealogy of European, African and Nigerian military history up to the period of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war. She noted that the museum is a place of reconciliation and also a place for students in different disciplines to equip themselves with accurate facts of events.
The Curator also said that the war museum was also established to serve as a place where the people would learn that war is not the best way to resolve a national challenge.
“It is not good to go to war. Problems should be settled on the roundtable of peace. Many people died during the civil wat, many dreams were cut short” adding that “the youths should shun violence of any type”.

Nigerian army, navy step up maintenance of facility
According to the Curator, the men of the Nigerian Navy from Rivers State recently took a tour of the museum where they repainted the Nigerian Navy ship NNS at the museum, giving the war-ship a new look and making it visitor-friendly. She also disclosed that the Nigerian Army is presently renovating the gallery section of the museum and also undertaking the landscape construction of the facility while the men of the Nigerian Air Force are also gearing up to paint the planes to bring them in tandem with the taste of the time.

Tourism flow
The Curator said “we receive many visitors and people come here to relax, especially during festivities. Even schools come here on excursion”. She however regretted that a lot of financial resources were required to run the museum effectively but thanked the men of the armed forces for their interests in revitalizing the place.
She concluded by saying that the full potentials of the museum have not been tapped by tourists and researchers while urging Nigerians to make the museum their first point of tourism destination which she said if well harnessed was capable of attracting resources to the country.

Nigeria intends to build a new museum over the next four years that could exhibit looted Benin Bronzes currently displayed in European and American museums.

Many Benin Bronzes – a group of more than 1,000 prized metal plaques and sculptures looted in 1897 by British troops from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in modern-day Nigeria – are at the British Museum and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.

The possibility of having the objects returned to Benin City in Nigeria’s southern Edo state and shown at the future Edo Museum of West African Art has long been a dream for many

“I am elated,” said Theophilus Umogbai, curator of the existing National Museum in Benin.

“The museum will serve as an identity symbol of the rich cultural arts traditions of Benin people.”

Museums in Europe and America have wrestled with a tangle of legal and ethical problems concerning objects taken during the colonial period.

Even in well-documented cases of pillaging, the law often prevents countries from giving them back – as is the case with the British Museum, which could, however, loan the Benin Bronzes to the new Edo museum.

“This project will help us reconnect our past glory to our present realities,” Edo state’s governor Godwin Obaseki said, announcing the project at an event on Friday, November 13.

He said he hopes the overall project “should be far developed if not totally completed” by the end of 2024.

The 10,000-square-foot museum is being designed by David Adjaye, the award-winning architect behind the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC

The Ghanaian-British architect hopes that the building in Nigeria will have “a place on the world stage”.

“It is not just enough to give back objects that were taken but to also collaborate and make this a world-class centre.”

In addition to the museum, an archaeological excavation project will begin in 2021, at a site adjacent to the palace of the Oba, Benin’s traditional ruler.

The British Museum and the Legacy Restoration Trust have already secured the equivalent of $4 million of initial funding, according to a statement from the London museum.

Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, said that the new Nigeria museum “will surely become one of the most significant museum initiatives in the coming decades”.

The British Museum has announced it will help dig for Nigerian treasures as part of a new archaeology mission. Trustees of the British Museum

Last month, French lawmakers voted unanimously to return artefacts to Benin and Senegal – although it remains a small number compared to the estimated 90,000 artefacts the country holds from all over Africa.

From every point of view, Osu emerged from traditional religion. Somebody can become an Osu by dedication willingly or unwillingly to an idol. According to Igbo ancient beliefs and practices, prisoners of war, slaves or kidnapped people may be dedicated to appease an angry god to remove calamity from the land while some are dedicated as punishment for an offence they may have committed in the community.

Others in order to escape maltreatment, including being turned into slaves from powerful relations dedicated themselves willingly by running into the shrine for protection. Those people become agents of the gods with marks and their hair uncared for. There are still others who committed crimes punishable by death, such people run to the protection of the deity and so lose every right of the society. Others became Osu by marrying or sleeping on beds slept by Osu or having sexual relationships with an Osu.

Ogechukwu Maduagwu an anti-caste activist and founder of an NGO, Initiative for the Eradication of Traditional and Cultural Stigmatization describes Osu are those believed to have been dedicated to the deity of a community and also pledge the faithfulness of their unborn generations.

An Osu can be an indigene of a community but most indigenes of that community, who are Osu, became so through interaction by interacting with Osu, but most Osu are bought by the community from the slave market or captured during communal wars just to thank their deities. They are like mass servants but are regarded as untouchable. They don’t interact with the so-called freeborn otherwise known as ‘di-ala’.

However, Some Bishops from the Anglican Communion have urged government and traditional institutions to close ranks in banishing the `Osu’ caste system out of Igboland.
Rt. Rev. Tony Nkwoka, Emeritus Bishop of Niger West and also the director, Institute of Theology, Paul University, Awka during a stakeholders meeting of government and traditional leaders in Awka, February 13th, expressed worry that the Osu caste system, which classifies some people as inferior to others, was still prevalent in communities across the South ­East region more than 160 years since the advent of Christianity in Igboland.

According to the Bishop “Christianity did not just come as an alternative religion but as a civilizing force of human development, progress and peace. Is it an oversight, neglect or repudiation that none of the five Igbo state governments of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo has revalidated this law? We can say, without fear of contradiction, that all our Igbo legislators are Christians even if only nominally,”

He expressed regret that none of those five state governments had thought it wise to revalidate the Eastern Nigeria Law No 26 of 1960 which abolished the Osu caste system. Osu caste till today poses a serious threat and great question that needs to be answered because it appears that education cannot remove it. People appear to be gaining from it.

Rt Rev Samuel C.A Chukuka the pioneer bishop of Anglican Diocese of Isikwuato/Umunneochi in his experience on Osu caste said; ‘I had an experience sometime in America where an Igbo man was elected as the chairman of Igbo’s in a particular state and some people from their town began to protest saying he is aka-ekpe (a name given in Igbo as Osu). The man was married to a white woman, the wife asked him why his people were fighting against his position and he told her the truth that he is an outcast. The woman was annoyed that the man didn’t tell her all these earlier and she went inside the room brought out a gun and shot him!

You can see the danger of this kind of terrible thing. In America, people who are educated, talented could not allow the man to lead them because of this terrible thing they call Osu in our land. The Americans have voted a black to become their president, thereby removing the past obnoxious segregation of the blacks. So, there is no question to answer about these than to say that some people are educationally illiterate loaded with ignorance.
Rt Rev Samuel C.A Chukuka, succinctly stated that ‘religious bodies are striving to achieve a situation where marriage between Osu and Diala (free borns) be possible in the Igbo communities for the enhancement of nation building’.

This becomes more possible and real if people begin to regard their fellow human as equal. Also, begin to see these acts as wickedness, especially regarding someone as Osu. By the way, those people you call Osu, some of them do not even understand what it means because it started some two hundred years ago before the gospel came into our land.

So, until we begin to realize its foolishness; when you regard someone as Osu, there is nothing there to regard someone as Osu, what our ancient fathers who were in nudity walking around kept. The only way is to say no to it and people begin to marry who they want to marry and contradict it. Some communities in south east have already stopped it while some still persist for its ugly trend.

Mazi Sir Sotre Eze, a catholic knight of St Molumba (KSM) noted that during one of his interaction with some students on “Osu caste system and why it must be abolished” in Lagos he discovered that one young man from Imo state wasn’t contributing, when he questioned him why he was not contributing, the young man said the mother warned him that those people who talk about it die early. I am in my middle seventies and talking about it for years, but I have not died responded the Knight. So, these are fears instilled in some people, they are tales and not reality, he added.

However, we are aware that the government on their own side is fighting to eradicate this ill militating against our society yet it appears some people are gaining from it. For instance, in politics, you discover that when your opponent is an Osu, they begin to segregate and in return gain over their competitors because they are free born.

Mr Chigozie Nwadike a renowned activist once admonished that in Imo state you cannot contest for any position if you’re an Osu. ‘Do you know that some of these people you call Osu are professors, rich, intelligent and highly influential in the society outside the country? If they come out for elections they will win, but due to fear they prefer to keep to themselves.

Consequently, the law that was enacted in 1956, which was debated in the House of Reps was eventually outlawed it. The law is that if you call someone an Osu, you go to prison for it or option of fine. So, if people are taken to prison they will not regard or call someone an Osu. It appears that there is no leader who wants to fight for it.

In Enugu, the current governor has abrogated Osu and some communities have already started implementing it. Recently once you get such cases of Osu to a judge, he/she will take the due process but there is no enforcement of law in the society.

Research gathered so far has it that most people who are Osu has not come out to fight. It is very pertinent that these abused people in the society needs to come out to defend their rights. The white men fought against slavery; with the help of some freed slaves gave their life and fought it. Those who are free born, people are keeping quiet to talk or demonstrate against this ugly trend. People should go to houses of assembly to demonstrate and say they don’t want it again and this will go. People have not started making trouble about it, they don’t take it seriously. For hundreds of years, it seems to remain as it was, and it’s even growing much stronger now.

These Ostracized groups have in some ways affected the socio-economic development of their communities. Can we now say that they have excelled? These people you say they are nothing becomes something. Remember in the scripture, God warned Peter not call anything He created unclean.

Two love birds, indigenes of Okija in Anambra State, who took their lives because they were advised that they couldn’t marry because of the Osu caste system.

In the past, we -Igbos- regard masquerades (Mmanwu) as the means for maintaining peace and order with in our communities, and they played the role of law enforcement agents. While entertaining through dances and exhibiting extra ­human feats, most masquerades (Mmanwu) would walk up to certain individuals and loudly expose any bad habits, crimes or misbehaviors linked to such persons. As people would always take corrections from these exposures, masquerades (Mmanwu) were also effective in keeping up with traditional norms and values in the communities. With colonization of our people in the 20th century, masquerades (Mmanwu) in Igboland have be come more re lev ant as an institution for cultural entertainment than law enforcement agents. Nowadays, they are used more for tourist attractions when they come out in colorful robes accompanied by traditional dancers and music during festivities an d celebrations like Christmas.

Be that as it may, it is generally believed by our people that masquerades (Mmanwu) are spirits which spring from the soil. Depending on your point of view, this may be true or merely a myth . However, according to lgbo traditional beliefs, some masquerades (Mmanwu) are linked with spiritual elements. They represent images of deities or sometimes even dead relatives.

Masquerades (Mmanwu) embody the union between the spiritual and human worlds. The mystique surrounding  masquerades (Mmanwu) is one the key components of our culture that has survived Western influences. The identity of masquerades (Mmanwu) is a well-kept secret exclusively to men.

The masks worn by masquerades (Mmanwu) are usually determined by local customs an d traditions. Masquerading during Christmas season may involve one person team or a team made up of instrument players, vocalists, dancers, masquerade advisers, and the masquerade itself. Most masquerades (Mmanwu) are covered from head to toe with some piece of clothing or/and bamboo rafters. Their masks vary depending on the ty p e of masquerade and the place it is believed to have originated within the lgboland. Some mask s are designed to be beautiful, intimidating or downright sinister. Most masquerades (Mmanwu) claim to have some mystical powers and are constantly competing to see which one has the most mystical powers, whenever they appear together especially at village squares or festivals like Ede Aro Abagana. Masquerades (Mmanwu) are classified into categories based on specialization. Each masquerade possesses particular attributes ( warrior- like prowess, mystical powers, youth fulness, and old age) and specializes in one or more skills ( dancing skills, acrobatics, and
other ritual manifestations). We, Igbos, celebrate masquerades (Mmanwu) in accordance with our local community native calendars during festivals, social gatherings, and annual festivities like Christmas. Some masquerades (Mmanwu) appear only at one festival, but the majority appears at many or all.