ukpuru:Igbo mask dancers performing during the Onwa Asaa festival, Ugwuoba village, Nigeria.Masquera
ukpuru:Igbo mask dancers performing during the Onwa Asaa festival, Ugwuoba village, Nigeria.Masquerade dancers in Ibo village of Ugwuoba, between Awka and Enugu. Masked and costumed men are chosen by their villages to wear costumes and to masquerade during the annual yam festival, called ‘Onwasato’ in Ibo. The very colorful costumes of reds, whites and greens in stripes are called Iyolo, which means ‘fine thing.’ The raffia costumes are called Udo, which means ‘rope.’ The masked men represent various ju-jus, some good, some bad. The dancers are milling up and down the main road through the village, charging back and forth senselessly, dashing through the market area, shouting and jumping, some blowing horns hidden inside their masks. This was the first day of a four-day celebration, and was the first ‘showing’ of the masquerade costumes.Master Catalogue: Literary Africa. Eliot Elisofon. 1959. K97, 1-36; K98, 1-20Photo by Eliot Elisofon, 1959. -- source link