Political Ideals and Public Space in Pre-Literate Igbo Society: A Study of the Political Implications of Masquerade Enactment as Socialization Process among the Nri-Igbo

Abstract

It is strange to associate politics with masquerade enactments among the Nri Igbo of Nigeria. However, this represents a cultural value of a people and we leave it at that. I am interested in looking at this peculiar phenomenon for a number of reasons. The first is that perhaps it might enable us to understand the mind of the people with regard to the values they hold concerning politics. In what ways is this similar, or different from that of the present dispensation in African? The other reason is that it might go to put on hold the common assumption that women are secluded from masquerade performances and so from politics. The two concepts are hardly concomitant and consequently unable to be reconciled. And yet, one seems to act as an idiom, or metaphor, for the other.