Names as verbal codes of Igbo masquerades

Abstract

To the Igbo, names are quite revelatory of lives experiences by parents who give names to their children as verbal codes of their individual and collective memory. When a mother loses her child during childbirth and this becomes a recurrent decimal, the last surviving child is given the name, Onwughalu, meaning, may death spare this child. When a child is born to a wealthy family, her name reflects their season of plenty. It would seem that Igbo names may provide insights into the Igbo philosophy of life. In the same way, the Igbo also have names for their various masquerades which this paper refers to as a system of verbal coding. By decoding such names, one discovers that they provide easy access to mask identities, associated mask types, costumes and performance strategies. Relying on both oral and written evidence, the paper examines how names of masquerades provide easy access to Igbo mask typology in their classification, inventory of costumes and how mask theater provides a useful context for aligning mask performance strategies to deferring mask identities and even audience responses to mask displays. The paper concluded that names provide vital clues as verbal codes to Igbo masquerade identities, mask types, costumes and performance strategies in the context of mask theater at the village square. Paper had decoded that which had been coded in the context of Igbo masking.