Godwin Inyang's Blog

The ekpo masquerade is segmented into three – the adult, youth and children. Every year, the best dancer is crowned (in the hearts of spectators) king or prince of each category. A king of the adult category or prince of any of the junior categories is identified by his thighs – they wear briefs – and mask as the masked fellows are never ever addressed by their personal names. The ekpo is only identified as an ekpo (a term which also means ‘a ghost’) till the mask is off. The ekpo masquerade season starts immediately after the planting season and ends in the New Year just before the farm-clearing season. The adult masquerade appears first and its season lasts the entire length of the rainy season and terminates just as the dry season saunters in. The youth masquerade would receive the baton shortly after and would last the early part of the dry season. As harmattan and the New Year approach, with all the festivities towards the end of the old year and the beginning of the New Ye

She sits quite stylishly on the wall; Streamlined figure, well-manicured fingers; Her stature is neither short nor tall; Her mild perfume on my nostrils lingers.   Her voice is mellifluous to my ears; Her garments are simple yet elegant. On her neck is a resplendent chain she wears With a crown etched on the pendant.   I draw close and she leaps on me grandly: A grip on my intellect and emotion. She floors me with the beauty of a lily With her loads of sublime intention.   I’m confronted with a sonnet on the wall And sprawled and headily in love I fall. (THE POEM IS TAKEN FROM MY COLLECTION, 'COLOURS {OF LIFE, LOVE AND FAITH}'.)