Northern Edo masquerades
The Northern Edo Masquerades are a traditional ceremony practiced by the Edo people of Nigeria. History Masking traditions are a major part of the Edo groups of Nigeria, who trace their beginnings to the kingdom of Benin, their neighbors to the south. The politics and social structures of the Ibo groups tend to be more similar to their neighbors, which consist of the Idoma and Igala. Basic political units are formed from ritual ties. A council of elders within a number of Masquerade societies forms each small village’s government. Okpella is well known in and around Edo state as a cement town, which with ties to other African cities, towns, and villages under the direction of Glo-Mobile, one of Africa’s fastest growing networks that is helping to increase the technology of Africa to its network capacity to 10 million lines by the end of 2006, the village is still alive with African traditions and culture. Men and women of the Edo people belong to masquerade societies, with their primary belief to control anti-social forces (voodoo, witchcraft, demons, devils, etc.) and help to bring about a better, safer, and well-adjusted community or village. Artists African art and African artists are regarded in a different sense of the word “artist” than what persons from other cultural backgrounds might conceive. An African artist is one who works in many different capacities, rather than just being a “starving artist," of Western lore. Most of these men and women work on farms as laborers and seasonal help. An African artist is highly regarded as a professional who may have become skilled in many mediums, such as wood, metal, leather, mud, wall painting, ceramics, and many other different aspects of creativity. Unlike their counterparts of the United States and Europe, researchers and collectors of art were not so much concerned with the artist’s name and identity, rather than to remember the artist as a well-known member of his or her village or town. Many African artists throughout the years have established themselves with more of a regional reputation, attracting patrons of their craft, who wish to procure commissioned work. According to Lawrence Ajanaku, an African artist, “No one learns from anyone else how to do it. It is something we are born with. It is the kind of knowledge that remains in the center of our being”. The best-known of the Edo groups, the Okpella, use a wide, varying range of mask types, which, according to some African artists, may take up to a year to complete. The masks that are created by the artist convey many different types of rituals and ceremonies. One example of this is a brilliant, white-faced mask representing “dead mothers”, appearing during the annual Olimi festival, which is held at the end of the dry season, and is worn by dancing kinsmen. This festival, as others do, signifies social control and ancestral reverence, celebrating the transitions of age-grades. The Otsa festival embraces women dancers in addition to the male, the tradition