“Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” – Cesar Chavez
Last week, Enugu State was in the news, largely for the wrong reasons. First, a nine-day-old company was publicised as having secured a ₦100 billion government contract (of borrowed funds). Both the state government and the main opposition party are trying to outdo each other in their struggle to explain the bizarre involvement of the government in the project.
However, since the searchlight has not yet been beamed on the Enugu State government, perhaps, the time is not yet ripe for full scrutiny. Suffice it to say, however, that the world is watching. When the time comes, I daresay, more questions will be asked and answers must then be given. At that time, snout and scooping will be necessary because the funds involved are the people’s commonwealth to be paid for by today’s folks and their children, if not today, then, tomorrow. There are already insinuations in the public domain that the project is a conduit pipe by some vested interests. If so, it is rather better if the pipe is blocked now before the bubble bursts.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, recently returned some Enugu State-owned property looted during the governorship of Chimaroke Nnamani, the former boss of Governor Peter Mbah. The governor must have been nostalgic and rueful receiving the property back, especially recalling that he was once a guest of the Commission on the matter. For Governor Mbah, the message could mean two things – a resolve never again to get involved in corruption, if God is magnanimous to grant him a second chance. Or it could harden him into thinking that, after all we did, we are back here again. The choice is his to make, but it’s imperative that those who willfully steal public funds must never go scot-free. If they escape the law of human beings, they must meet God’s judgment and punishment which is even more severe.
A closer scrutiny of the lives of all former governors who stole public funds in their care shows that those who are not facing the wrath are just a few, if any. If the former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, can go around the country unmolested (to the admiration of many) after a decade of leaving office, it has to do with the kind of altruistic service he rendered to his people and in him is a huge lesson for every public officer who is interested in record after office.
Perhaps, one may need to advise Governor Mbah to direct his hired mob operating as unleashed attack dogs to relax and let his work speak for itself. The noise in Enugu’s social media space engineered by the attack dogs from both sides of the divide is too much and capable of distracting the administration. Moreover, they are not helping the needed peace and harmony in the state.
Another snippet from Enugu that Governor Mbah needs to be careful and tactical about is the news of the politics of ranching and the unending killing in Uzo Uwani Local Government Area. The positives of ranching as a modern-day way to go have been marred by the background menace of herdsmen and this should not be brushed aside. I have nothing against the governor in the accusations making the rounds that he is arrogant and calls bluffs, so long as he is delivering the goods. Indeed, no politician can sincerely claim to have helped him to win electorally. Only the governor can sincerely say who and what made him governor.
Take the foregoing as a mere preamble while we go to the main issue of the week. Last week, Enugu emerged as a state that sent a spirit to jail and the Enugu judge in his ruling said that the spirit should be brought back to his court by November 2024 for further trial! Political Musings centers on the fallouts from this incident. A western-cultured law court sent a Masquerade, a supposed spirit from the gods, to jail, for going beyond its bounds. Does spirit have any bounds?
This matter has ignited debates in all Igbo platforms, particularly the one dominated by the Nsukka people whose masquerade was involved in the latest drama. The fight between the Catholic Church and masquerades in the Nsukka cultural zone of Enugu State dates back to the advent of Christianity in the area. The church has actually been winning the war because of the positives that accompany Christian messaging, aided heavily by Western education.
The church has successfully lowered the value of these masquerades and their shrines and deities to an insignificant level. The church has effectively brought to the fore all the negatives associated with these deities. Despite the obvious positives coming from the church even with the wider spread of Western education, it has not been able to conclusively bury the masquerade issue in Igbo land because it is embedded in Igbo culture. Noticeably, there has been a resurgence of this aspect of the people’s culture lately, surprisingly backed by some Christians and the well-educated in the society. This new focus is even slowing down the crescendo of evangelical Christianity in Igboland which has been back-breaking to the church that views it as neo-paganism.
Strangely, those pushing this latest interest in a recreation of masquerades are largely supported by Ndigbo in the diaspora who are anchoring their position in their defence of the dying African culture and tradition. To them, the church in its evangelism is deliberately eradicating the people’s culture and tradition. They argue that what the church is pushing, using messages on Jesus Christ, is indeed the culture and tradition of the West and that Jesus should be preached without destroying the culture of the people. Those in this school of thought say like Marty Rubin: “Behind every mask, there is a face and behind that a story.” They insist that the story should not die because it is a part of the people’s history.
The question now begging for an answer is whether what masquerades are doing in our societies today is the culture of the people. The quintessential Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, the Most Rev. (Professor) Godfrey Igwebuike Onah, in one of his captivating homilies, addressed the issue of masquerades in the Nsukka area. He gave insight into the origin of masquerades as tax and other law enforcers in the olden days whose role has long been taken over by the police and other law enforcement bodies. This then means that in a dynamic world, non-entertaining masquerades should go extinct with time.
Still, even the entertainment aspect of masquerades, which those in support are pushing for, is being undermined by the youths who continue to highlight the enforcement aspect by always accompanying it with their canes and threatening the populace.
For instance, the ‘Oriokpa Masquerade’ cooling off in Enugu prison was not enforcing any known law but using its position to settle scores. The girl the masquerade in Enugu brutalieed was not violating any law. It is true that as a mark of respect, women should remain distant from masquerades and only admire them from afar, unlike men. But that was then when most women were culturally indoors, handling only domestic issues. When these anti-feminist rules were made, women were not educated and hardly went out, except to go to the market or farm. The world is dynamic, things are changing, and women and men are competing in virtually every space. In those days, women hardly wore trousers, only skirts and long wrappers. Today, more women wear trousers than skirts.
The time has come for the enforcement type of masquerades to be scrapped or made to operate without carrying any cane while the entertainment masquerades should be modernised for the good role of amusing the people. By doing so, the culture will not drown and the church’s role of propagating Christ will not be endangered in any way. Those propagating culture should ensure that criminals like the one in Enugu prison should not hide under the mask to perpetrate crimes.
The other ongoing debate is whether those who apprehended the masquerade were right in humiliating it publicly like kneeling it down while wearing the masquerade apparel. Tradition and culture irredentists are arguing that the boy hosting the masquerade should have been isolated and punished not desecrating the masquerade with him. Some of them also argue that taking the masquerade to court as a masquerade was wrong and disrespectful to Igbo culture. After all, a masquerade is supposed to be a facade, a false display, a stimulation. Oriokpa is a deity, the court judge himself described it as a spirit.
What needs to be done quickly too is for intellectuals representing varying positions, the church, and the traditionalists in the area to come together and deepen a thought on this matter. The positive aspects of these masquerades should be extracted and developed for the good of society. The success recorded globally by our Nollywood has shown that there could be a lot of business aspects of it. It can be a great tourism potential if well harnessed. For instance, the Olenyi Obollo festival in Udenu Local Government Area every December 27 excites the populace and could be turned into a tourism destination.
In a world of today where happiness is scarce and has even become a social duty and sadness a public offence, the entertainment aspect of our masquerades must not be allowed to die. It is our responsibility to preserve these cultures because they are necessary for our history. The famous black nationalist, Marcus Garvey, was right in saying: “A people without the knowledge of their history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” If the masquerades are exterminated the way the church is aiming, a lot of our past will be lost to our future generations.
Let us have this advisory from Robert Alan Arthur: “Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity. Intercultural dialogue is the best guarantee of a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world.”
A 15th-century Dutch philosopher, Baruch Spinoza, admonishes: “If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” With that, you can know which to drop or sustain. God help us.
