Juliana Francis
The date is the 2nd of January 2024. The sun was shining, but the people, dressed in colourful wrappers, were not feeling the bite of the sun.
Tension heightened to a screaming point as drumming rent the air. Everyone waited with bated breath for the masquerade, otherwise dubbed Ekpe, to kill the sacrificial goat. To kill the goat, the Ekpe must, with one slash of his sharpened machete, cut off its head.
Before that day, the goat had been starved to force it to stretch out its neck for a clean kill.
If the Ekpe fails to have a clean kill with a slash of his machete, this failure becomes something of a disgrace, not just for the Ekpe carrier but for the Amaoba people. A clean kill is a thing of pride and joy for the people and often becomes a bragging point.
On this particular day, the people waited and soon, a voice tinged with bated excitement cut through the air, screaming, “O’gbula sham,” meaning, “he has made a clean kill.”
This scream is then followed by jubilations, singing, drumming and dancing. The Ekpe carrier, for having a successful kill, is feted with money; his wife, if he is married, gets to go home with the head of the goat.
A female relative of the carrier can also carry the head to dance.
Amaoba is a community in the Ikwuano Local Government in Abia State. It is made up of different communities, and the Ekpe festival continues to hold these communities together.
For over a hundred years, if not more, the Ekpe Festival has been celebrated, defying Western culture and religion. It brings children of Amaoba together, including those in the diaspora. Indeed, many indigenes save money towards ensuring they travel to the village for this annual festival.
Festivals play a significant role in driving economic activity and revenue generation for countries, but the Ekpe Amaoba Festival, though a mass driver, has never been prepared as a festival for driving tourism and economic activities.
Festivals can attract tourists, boost local businesses, and create jobs. It is also an avenue for boosting a country’s revenue and for a people’s culture to ensure continuity.
Mazi Emeka Ijiomah from Umuawuru in Azukala. The Ikputu Oboro autonomous community said that today, Amaoba is made up of three autonomous communities.
Amaoba-Ime, Ikputu-Oboro and Abaa-Ukwu autonomous communities.
Although Ijiomah lives outside Nigeria, he continues to play a key role in the planning of the Ekpe Festival in Amaoba. Ijiomah said that the festival is about ushering in the new farming season and symbolises fertility.
He added: “The festival was brought in from, or rather borrowed from, the Akwa-Ibom Community Area, Calabar people. There, they call it the Ekpe festival, but ours is a bit different because our culture is a bit different.”
He said that although he could not say for sure the number of years the festival has been going on, what he knows for sure is “that my grandfather witnessed it. Almost every community in Ikwuano participates in the festival, but not all the communities.”
He said that Western culture and religion have eroded many African cultures and traditions; however, the Ekpe Festival remains.
Ijiomah recounted: “Back in the day, churches used to send spies to come and write down the names of their members that attended the Ekpe Festival, to excommunicate or place them at the back of the church as a punitive measure.
“The funny thing is that if the Ekpe successfully cuts the goat, you will see those spies jumping up in jubilation, celebrating with the people. The Ekpe festival has survived because it is one major event that allows both the young and the old to interact and enjoy themselves.
“It is true that in foreign countries, festivals attract tourism and generate money from it. In Amaoba specifically, I don’t know of other communities. Most Ekpe I have attended, you know our culture is kind of tied to deities, so we protect some of the things we do. Not to allow tourists to know about some of the things being done during the festival.
“I think that might be the reason why it has not been allowed to be used to attract tourism. However, indigenes bring friends from outside Amaoba to take part in the Ekpe festival. I hope in the future, the new generation that comes after us will tap into the tourism aspect of Ekpe.”
Ijiomah said that tourism and revenue generation using the Ekpe Festival was a good idea, but added that some community people could be a bit myopic towards exposing the culture and tradition to outsiders.
He disclosed that on the eve of the Ekpe Festival, there is usually a celebration called ‘Ote Ekpe,’ which is accompanied by drumming and dancing to usher in the Ekpe Festival.
He disclosed that during the preparation for the Festival, the Ekpe wearer must not eat food prepared by a woman at least a week before the big day of the festival. He is also not allowed to shake hands with people. Sometimes, his carrier could be fortified to seek the face of the gods so that he would not fail to make a clean kill.
On the day of the event, the carrier is treated kingly, with people dressing him for close to two hours.
Ijiomah said that he sees the festival continuing for years, with the youth guarding it jealously to ensure continuity.
Asked about the place of a woman in the festival, Ijiomah replies: “Women have no place in the Ekpe Festival except when the Ekpe cuts the goat. The wife is privileged to carry the head and dance around, and make some money. Women are not allowed where the Ekpe is being dressed. Before, women hardly came close to the Ekpe, except when they wanted to bring a child, probably a child who is having convulsions, to the Ekpe to be held or a child who is used to fear.
“They will carry the child to the Ekpe to hold for some time, which is believed to remove fear or cure sicknesses like convulsions in children. Before a woman gives such a child to her husband or male relative to give to the Ekpe carrier, but this is no longer the situation today.”
Another indigene, Chinenye Ekpechi of Amaoba Azukala, said the Ekpe festival is a symbol of culture and tradition.
She said with enthusiasm: “It brings our people together, leading to cementing of relationships. Even if I am sick during the festival, if I am not bedridden, I must participate!”
She said that although she married in faraway Enugu State, marriage had never stopped her from coming to her village to attend the festival.
Laughing in embarrassment, she said: “Do you know that sometimes I collect loans to make I travel to the village to attend the Ekpe festival? I make sure I participate in all the Ekpe festivals here in the Ikwuano Local Government, not only the Amaoba Ekpe.
“People who reside in the village usually start calling me once it is the 30th of December, asking if I have arrived at the village or when I will land. My husband is aware that I don’t joke with our Ekpe festival.
“ I believe I am not the only person who behaves in such a way because of the Ekpe Festival. Yes, I am not the only one who travels down every year to the village because of the Ekpe festival. Most people change their travel dates just to attend the Ekpe festival. I have two friends from my maternal side, Ogadinma and Akudo, who don’t miss it either every year.”
Mr Chinedum Isaac, popularly known as Jamo or Ogbu Sham, used to be one of the carriers of the Ekpe. He got his nickname, Ogbu Sham, because he was famous for cutting off the head of the goat with just one slash of his machete.
He revealed that he got his knack for making a clean cut from his grandfather. His grandfather was also a carrier of Ekpe.
Isaac said that he carried it for a complete six years, and in those years, he never faltered in making a clean cut. Isaac, beaming with pride over his achievement, explained that not having a clean cut is called Nkpor.
He further explained: “Several communities are into this festival. Every January, people visit because of the festival, which takes place every January, and many people come to witness it. If you are known for making a clean cut, people will love you, but you will also make many enemies.
“I left the community for a while and returned in the year 2016. People gathered around me and said to me, ‘Jamo, get ready to carry the Ekpe. It is because it runs in my family. I did not decline since it was an inherited ability from my grandfather.
“In 2017, Mazi Chukwuemeka Ijiomah called to ask me how 2017 would look, and I assured him that there would be no problem. A goat was bought to test my capability. I cut it once, after that, people around me carried me up, congratulating me for a well-done job.
“The news that I would be the person to carry the Ekpe in 2017 went viral. That very year, on the 4th of January, happened to be my first time, and I ended up carrying it for six years. My last outing was in 2023.”
Asked if he had ever worried or fretted over failing to make a clean cut, Isaac laughed and said: “I have never had such thoughts because I am very sure of myself! I don’t even seek spiritual fortification to be able to cut the goat as some people used to do.
“Whenever the festival was approaching, I would only visit my grandfather’s grave, seeking his guidance. I would also ask him to keep enemies away from me. Enemies will not want you to have a clean cut. My ancestors have been guiding me, not juju or charm.”
Asked the consequences of not having a clean kill, or what villagers call Nkpor, Isaac replied: “If you cut NKPOR, people will beat you up right there at the Ekpe ground, and that will become like your trending name-OGBU NKPOR-, which is very shameful. Take, for instance, everywhere I go, people address me as ‘Ogbu sham,’ which makes me feel very proud of myself. The nickname Ogbu Sham embodies honour and respect.”
Questioned on how best to turn the festival into a money maker, Isaac said that if the issue of tourism and revenue generation was given deep thought and implemented, it would mean hotels in the community for guests. He said that already, so many people used to bring their friends to participate and witness the festival.
He said, “The friends of an indigene who attended will tell others. But if we want to make it into a tourist attraction, we will have to start thinking of where our visitors will lodge. Although we have so many hotels around where people lodge, this very Amaoba doesn’t have one.
“But things can change with the foreigners visiting, that might prompt someone from the community to want to build. Some buildings can easily be converted into a hotel, well-fitted and well-decorated. So that any visitor or white person coming will know that there is a place not too far from the community where they can lodge, and by so doing so, we are developing the community.”
Asked if he was willing to train people on how to have a clean kill, he replies: “You cannot train anybody on how to make a clean kill! Ekpe is rotational, so once it gets to a family, it is picked and tested on whether it will be able to make a clean cut. The tenure is six years; that’s the agreement binding on the two communities, which are Amaoba Ikputu and Amaoba Ime. However, someone may not be allowed to complete his six-year tenure if he fails once to have a clean kill.”
Our reporter also spoke with 94-year-old Mr Izuzuoha Anyanwu, who said that he had attended the festival even as a child. He claimed that before the communities started using goat, they used human beings, and this human was usually a stranger in the communities.
He said that the killing of humans stopped after police and the enforcement of law and order became known, compelling the communities to replace humans with goats.
Asked the purpose for killing human beings during the festival, Anyanwu said: “My late father didn’t tell me their purpose. The selection for the Ekpe carrier was changed some years ago, where the community now decide that a particular person will carry the Ekpe for six years before another will take over.”
