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Abstract
African masquerades have been defined as cultural systems, relating to heritage, and as religious, transformational, defiant, and liminal acts. This article turns attention towards the economic dimension of West African masquerade culture. The article demonstrates that masquerade arts and performance in urban Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, Nigeria, have become mechanisms for marketing and making money as members find new ways to financially sustain themselves in a postcolonial Nigerian metropolis. Three aspects of the economics of masquerade are presented and analyzed: 1) the money in masquerade spectacle, 2) the business of cultural clubs, and 3) the business of renting masquerade costumes and ritual paraphernalia. Long-standing as well as more recent youth masquerade secret societies are contextualized and historicized to examine the ways in which masquerades and their performances and economics in Calabar are indeed inseparable.
Notes
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/rcin.
1 Although beyond the scope of this article, the origins of the Agaba masquerades are Igbo. In fact, many past and present members in Calabar informed me how Agaba was originally an Igbo-related masking association demonstrating male bravado. Male prowess is still a major concern, albeit with more aggressive intentionality.
2 Interview with Alex Ema (Lexy1), a retired ID Boy member, March 15, 2010.
3 Interview with Nsa Eyo Nsa, January 27, 2010.
4 In stressing the local facets of masquerade and money, I am, of course, mindful of the interrelationships between international, tourist, and local markets of African art (Richter Citation1980, pp. 4–7).
5 Beyond Ekpe/Mgbe and Agaba, the other prominent male “masking societies” are Akata, Obon, Ukwa, a senior warrior society, and Nnabo, a junior warrior association.
6 I hesitate referring to these associations as “masquerade societies” since masking and performance are not their only purpose and role but an important part of how they visualize power, influence, and relevance to the community.
7 In Calabar, Ekpe and Mgbe consists mostly of all-male governmental secret societies involved in ancestral veneration. Ekpe and Mgbe are often generalized under the label of “leopard society,” a rather awkward and limiting construction that misinforms rather than helps.
8 Dogon masks and their related mock performances provide an interesting case of how local culture has become a steady tourist endeavor (for more, see Richards, Citation2005). Also of interest: the Dogon understand the way in which their art and masquerades are understood by foreign patrons, and they seem to use that misconception to their own advantage. Meanwhile, their more recent and changing mask styles are hidden from tourists.
9 Calabar was formally called Old Calabar during early trade interactions with the Portuguese and during the transatlantic slave trade. During the slave trade, Old Calabar incorporated the settlements known as Duke Town, Creek Town, Henshaw Town, and Old Town (Obutong). Calabar lost its “Old” designation after the British colonial administration moved their headquarters to Lagos during the early 1900s. The term “Old Calabar” was probably coined by Europeans to distinguish Calabar from New Calabar and the Kalabari River (see Nair, Citation1972, pp. 1–2).
10 Some Cross River cultures include but are not limited to the Efik, the Ibibio, the Ejagham, the Yakurr, the Ekajuk, Boki, Anyang, Banyang, and Widekum.
11 The segmented Efik towns (Duke Town, Old Town, Creek Town, and the Guinea Towns) were led by family heads who acquired great wealth and status in Efik society as a result of the slave and produce trades. See Oku (Citation1989) for a biographical sketch.
12 As many argue, once the Efik purchased Mgbe from their Ejagham neighbors, they changed it into Ekpe, and their version was resold to communities upriver, enabling inland peoples to become credit-worthy in the Efik system, which in turn unified a fragmented region (Nair, Citation1972; Latham, Citation1973; Ottenberg & Knudsen, Citation1985). The Efik constructed a 30,000 square mile commercial network that linked into even wider trading routes. The Efik version was, like the others, political and judicial. However, Ekpe was changed to negotiate the commercial, social, and religious life brought about by European presence during the slave and produce trades (Behrendt, Latham, & Northrup, Citation2010, p. 32).
13 See Jones (Citation1956, p. 124, 141–142) for more on how the Ekpe society enforced the trade credit system.
14 For example, in Cuba, Ekpe resurfaced as Abakua in the early 19th century. For more, see Miller (Citation2009).
15 Many commodities are listed in Gomar Williams, History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque with an account of the Liverpool Slave Trade (London: William Heinemann Liverpool, Citation1987). See also Alpern (Citation1995) for a more extensive list of trade goods received by African traders during transatlantic slave trade.
16 This early photograph is from the Claude Macdonald catalogue located in the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. Macdonald arrived in Calabar to serve as a colonial administrator in the early 1890s.
17 Seven years after Nigeria's independence in 1960, Calabar became capital of Southeastern State, regaining its once political prominence, not unlike how it was during British colonialism, before the colonial administration moved to Lagos. Within a decade of becoming the capital city, Calabar was transformed into an administrative, political, and commercial center (Inyang et al., Citation1980, p. 24). The population in 1977 was estimated at about a quarter of a million.
18 Interview with Sunday Adaka, May 1, 2010.
19 Elsewhere, I discussed economic incentives behind a masquerade competition unfolding during the end-of-the-year tourist season in Calabar. While the case is indeed part of an elaborate tourist-driven agenda, local masqueraders compete for and are motivated by large cash prizes (for more, see Fenton, Citation2016).
20 Among the Efik and Efut, the Ekpe chieftaincy title is known as Obong Ekpe, and among the Qua-Ejagham, it is known as Ntoe Mgbe. However, these local vernaculars are the more generic and general titles. Newly installed chiefs are bestowed with a more specific title, relating to the esoteric, overall structure and operation of the society. It is important to distinguish the economics of masquerade from the purchase and buying of chieftaincy titles. Although each overlap and manifest in a chieftaincy installation, performance, and ritual, each have different goals. Purchasing of chieftaincy titles involve upward advancement in stature and leadership, displaying status and power. In other words, spending money to achieve power. The economics that surrounds masking, performance, and ritual is more concerned with making money and turning profits. While much could be said on this issue, it is beyond the scope of this article.
21 The conversion rate used in this article is $1 to N162. While the rate at the time of finalizing this article was $1 to $199, the rate of 162 is used since it was the active conversion rate when I conducted the majority of fieldwork inquiry into the economics of masquerade and collected prices and costs in Nigeria from mid-July to mid-August 2014. Most of the rates and prices reflected in this article were collected during this trip, but others were collected from previous trips. At this point in my ongoing research, I am unsure as to how much conversion rate fluctuation changes local prices and renting costs discussed in this article.
22 “Dash” is a Nigerian Pidgin term meaning tip or gift given in appreciation for a service rendered or to show one's thankfulness and kindness.
23 Certainly, indigenous arts have long been exchanged and traded; artists and performers profited from their art and participation; and even members and masqueraders advanced in masquerade societies through active involvement. However, in the context of masquerade associations, most elders informed me this was a form of mutual aid and as a status-seeking endeavor, something different from what I am demonstrating here: masquerade as a business in contemporary Calabar. Although beyond the scope of this article, more studies are needed on the ways in which profit and exchange was part of the traditional context of masquerade societies operating before the patterns of change outline in this article.
24 Interview with Edem Nyong Etim, March 15, 2010.
25 Interview with Prince Oyo Okon Effiom, April 13, 2010.
26 The Ekpe/Mgbe raffia masquerader is often understood as the more general type and is often the aggressor during public performance. The raffia variety is always present at most Ekpe or Mgbe functions, rituals, and performances. It is the only Ekpe/Mgbe masquerade made mostly from local materials. However, more recently, synthetic dyes are commonly used to dye the raffia.
27 Interview with Bassey Nyong Etim and Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa, July 18, 2014.
28 Interview with Chief Emmanuel Edim, retired masquerader, October 10, 2009.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jordan A. Fenton
Jordan A. Fenton ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art at Miami University, Ohio. Fenton's 17 months of fieldwork investigation into the art and culture of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria was carried out between 2008 and 2010 and in 2014. Fenton conducted the work as a Fulbright-Hays Scholar (2009–2010), Foreign Language Area Studies Fellow (2008 and 2009), and Smithsonian predoctoral Fellow-in-Residence at the National Museum of Africa Art, Washington, DC (2011), and through his former institution, Kendall College of Art and Design, Ferris State University (2014). Fenton also serves on ACASA's Executive Board as the association's treasurer.
I would like to thank Sylvester O. Ogbechie for his insightful comments on an earlier draft of this article.
I would also like to thank my former institution, Kendall College of Art and Design, Ferris State University, and the Office of the President for graciously funding my summer 2014 fieldwork.