What can possibly happen?

In Lokpanta the women do not go near masquerades, when they see the masquerades they either face the bush or run into it because it is a taboo for a woman to look at the “mmanwu” and the mmanwu does not abuse a woman who is showing respect by facing the bush.

Mmanwu or Muo like some other Igbo communities call it means Spirit and it is such a serious matter in the Igbo culture and also in other tribes across Nigeria I believe.

We do not see the mmanwu frequently like in most communities that have them appear at every festive period. The real Lokpanta mmanwu appears only during the new yam festival or at funerals of great men who "knew"the masquerade. 

In Lokpanta, women are not the only ones who stay away from the masquerades, men who have not been formerly initiated are usually flogged mercilessly in an unfortunate chance meeting with a masquerade group. It is sometimes an indirect way of letting the man know how cowardly he is for not joining the masquerade group.

It is customary for boys to be initiated “to know” the masquerade at an early age and it was same in my family which made me wonder why father a true Christian would allow his sons to be initiated into the spirit group. Nobody would give me an answer but in my little mind I was convinced that if it was evil or fetish, father wouldn’t allow it.

The masquerade followers came that morning to take my brother KC away for the rites, I was so scared and prayed for him to return alive. Not like anyone had died from the exercise but I was just a drama queen. I ran outside to meet him when they brought him back and I started right there to ask for the details of the event. 

My brother did not utter a word but all of a sudden, he stopped and barked at me in a strange language, I had run very far for my dear life before I discovered that he was joking, he was laughing hysterically at me and I remember father laughing too. Big brother Ifeanyi was there all the while playing host to the group. He had gone through same rites several years before that I still have no recollection of.

There are a lot of myths around the masquerade that I find very interesting; in those days, during the new yam (Iri ji) festivals, different masquerades stopped to pay homage to father. He would take all the children to his own father’s house which was more accessible, we all sat and watched the different masquerades, those were the worst days of my life, I was terrified of them and even knowing that with father we were protected was not enough.

Masquerades for illustrative purposes

On one occasion, I took off on my own when a really scary one arrived; I ran towards someone’s house and wouldn’t stop even though I was being called to stop running. Masquerades chase those who run from them and as expected, this spirit ran after me and I shut the door behind me as soon as I ran into a room. That raised another issue; the people there started screaming that I had cut of the masquerade’s head which terrified me all the more. 

There was no blood and the masquerade’s head was nowhere to be found in the room, I later discovered that it was a belief of the Lokpanta people that if you shut a door against a masquerade, it was said that you had cut its head and would be required to do certain things to appease the spirits.

As an adult, I still wonder what transpires in the bush or wherever they take their new intakes to, do they carry out a blood covenant? No I don’t think so. Perhaps, the young boys are given several strokes of the cane and asked not to shed a tear. Just maybe! Then again, they may just go there to consume all sorts of liquor, make merry and then bring the person back home. 

I recently told my boys about it and they really want to know what happens during the rites. They are interested in finding out but unfortunately, they are not Lokpanta boys and may never find out.lol

The more I think of it the more I come to the conclusion that the reason those initiated never say what happens there is because nothing really happens. What can possibly happen?