The Ebira Culture, Masquerades, and the Needed Reform.

The Ebira Culture, Masquerades, and the Needed Reform.

By Abdelgafar Amoka

Among the supposed Ebira culture, the most thriving is the masquerade that we call Eku. Meanwhile, in primary school, culture was defined to us as a way of life, how man lives and what he does. I could not forget the definition because we had to cram it for exam purposes since our English language comprehension was weak at that level. Is Masquerade an Ebira culture? Does it define our ways of life and how we live?

I was on a bike with my cousin on the first day of the Echane festival in Okene and approaching a Masquerade. It was along the Okene-Benin Road. He parked and said we should leave the road. While I was trying to ask him why, a guy on a bike that didn’t park was hit by the masquerade with the long stick he was holding and the guy fell with his bike. While he made a why expression on getting up, one of the followers hit him with a similar cane. It’s more like a reward for asking why. Some of those sticks result in a broken head with blood gushing out. My cousin said we could have been his victims.

What culture inflicts pain on a passerby without any offence? And these masquerades are on all the roads during the festival. There are travellers on the road travelling to the North and South that witness some of these violent acts. What impression of you and your culture will they take to their destination? When an Ebira person is described as violent, they may be using the mirror of the supposed violent masquerade culture to view you.

I heard about the suspension of the Echane festival across Ebiraland by the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland due to the violence that erupted in a part of Okene. Within 24 hours, the suspension was lifted because Adavi LG was to begin their Echane festival. The Governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo, announced the lifting of the ban on masquerading activities stressing the need to preserve cultural heritage while ensuring public safety.

Cultural preservation is a good idea. But if the supposed masquerade culture should be preserved, it needs to be reformed. The masquerades should be taken off the streets and roads and a designated square created for them for the festival. During the festivals, the masquerades converge at the square. The lovers of Eku (masquerade) can gather there to watch and enjoy the festivals. Those who have no interest can live their life in peace and can even do without setting their eyes on the masquerades.

During the Ovia festival in Ogori-Magongo, people travel from far and wide to witness the celebration. Who will travel to Okene to watch a masquerade festival and get his head broken? Culture is meant to be appealing, but I was looking forward to leaving Okene during the festival and am glad that I won’t be around during the Adavi Echane festival. Why is our “culture” not appealing to us and outsiders?

This is 21st century. Why would you hold a big cane on the street to beat people you don’t know in the name of a culture? If the masquerade in Ebiraland is a culture to preserve, the government and the stakeholders need to sit down to reform it. There is a need for a summit of Ebira stakeholders to agree on the sort of Masquerade festival they want and the modality to host it.

Masquerades need to be taken off the street and stripped of their violent nature. The non-believers of the masquerade culture have a right to their lives and the freedom of movement during the festival.

Culture evolves, and we can’t keep living in stone age. Masquerade culture needs to evolve to fit into the 21st century.