ORIGIN OF THE FESTIVAL There are few accounts of how the festival started. However, the differences inthese accounts are not fundamental. Generally, Ireba Eku (masquerade cult) wasbelieved to have been formed under the divine instruction of God to check the excesses of women, apart from serving as ancestor worship. Myth has it that aftercreating man and woman as husband and wife, one day God sent for the man but hewas too busy to honour the call. Instead, he requested his wife to heed God’s call onhis behalf. God gave her Irakwo (an egg-like object that contains the secrets of lifeand has the capacity to manifest supernatural powers) for her husband. Having dis-coveredits contents and being fascinated by them, she hid it in her uterus and laterswallowed it without giving it to her husband. She thereafter became quite powerful,performing supernatural feats as turning into any animal and changing back to ahuman being. She could instantly grow wings to fly around in astral travels. She al...
When sat close to the Oguntoro (the loom), Ebira women employ the best of their skills as they print elegantly on the cloth of the loom (ita-inochi).
this is a wonderful site. funnily enough, I'm the first one to leave a comment! I'm Ebira and looking for reasons to be proud of my homeland. I just found one more! I'll tell more of us about this. Keep it up. akoro o! Enexoxa Icha!
ReplyDeleteComing across this patriotic blog about the good works of Ebira women once more gave me resolve that under no circumstance will i not be proud to be Ebira. Ukoro obayin wa me ni ni. Akoro nini.
ReplyDeleteOmeiza
Dublin, Ireland