The Choirmaster (2)

The adult masked men wore masks, from charming to grotesque, carved from wood and some pieces of wood had special powers like the ones derived from the 'nkubia' tree. Who wore the 'nkubia' mask had a lasso tied on his waist and held by an able-bodied tender. There were moments the 'nkubia' wearer acted as if possessed, would go on a rampage and it was up to the tender to restrain him. Sometimes, he would need to smash eggs on the forehead of the mask before the rage would cease.

The adult masked men had their head coverings which stretched below the shoulders made from the grass called 'mkpatat'. It was the same grass used for making wreaths placed on graves. 'Ekpo' for the mask-wearer is also the word used for a spook.

The adult masked men painted their trunks and limbs pitch-black with charcoal. They strapped machetes to their waists, wore strips of cloths around their loins and held bows and arrows in their hands. Bells were tied to their rumps and left clanging: 'Kunam! Kunam! ...'

THE youth mask-wearers had head coverings made from the grass called 'nyakha akono'. When dry, the covering is brown and hangs loose like the stretched-out hair of a blonde. They wore masks same as adult but not ones with special powers like the 'nkubia'. They had on them the machetes, bows and arrows. Their limbs and trunks were painted with 'nsang', the red chalk. They had strips of cloths or 'ndam' (strips of raffia) around their loins and could tie the bells to their rumps. Young people, especially non-initiates, were in dread of this set of ekpo masquerade.

The boy mask-wearer was the darling of all. Their head coverings ranged from dry plantain leaves to 'ndam' (fine threads pulled from the fronds of palm-wine trees). They wore nice-looking masks, some ringed with mirrors. They painted their trunks and limbs with 'ndom', the white chalk. They had strips of coloured cloths or ndam around their loins. They wielded the canes. They were invited into homes to sing and given gifts in return as it was believed through such interactions, the barren would become fertile.

Parents and guardians used them also to instill fear into their naughty wards. The choirmaster lost count of the times his mother had invited the young mask-wearers home and they would threaten him with their canes and he would cower behind her back and beg he'd never commit a certain vice again. Then his mother would forgive him and ask them to leave him alone. When of age, he joined them too and even was initiated into the youth group. Not long after that came the missionaries into their clan. His curiosity had drawn him to mingle with the fold and before he knew,  he was sucked in. His voice he realized could not be used both at the altar and in the shrine. As an interpreter, he was getting popular in his and across the other clans. What the 'mbakara', the fair-skinned person, said in his foreign tongue, Ukoko put it nicely across to his people in his mother tongue.

Whenever the 'mbakara' of the mission or government visited the clan, even the core traditionalists would love to see Ukoko beside them for he made them understand what they said in 'iko mbakara' or 'usem mbakara' better. 'Iko' connotes talk and 'usem'  means language. Lightly, some folks would refer to the English Language as 'usem mbom ekpo', that is 'language of the spooks' when they thought it was too difficult for them to understand.