Masquerades as ancestors

I remember one time ,my mother came back from the university,almost in tears,i remember my grandmother taking out some money from the tail of her wrapper were she kept a small bundle of her money for safe keeping to my uncle Ubong to pay the motorcycle rider who had brought my mum from Ikot -Ekpene town.

My mother was studying English Language Education from the University of Uyo,Akwa Ibom state.My grandparents took pride in the fact that they were able to give their children the highest form of education then,which was tertiary education,you see,they were among the very few families who did in the village,most people could not afford it or didnt think education was that useful anyways,they had their farms.

Whenever my mother or any of her other siblings came home from school ,my grand uncles and their children would come to the house and listen with rapt attention to various tales of school life or politics or watch my mum and siblings play various board games,that was were i picked up my love for scrabble and chess, we also played card games like ''whot'',i didn't understand the other pack of cards,with the kings and queens and jokers,until much later in life. 

I remember the times when they would have to return to school and my grandmother would gather all her resources,she would go into her room and be deep in thought,it was on one of such occasions that she took out the ''singer sewing machine'' and it never came back home again. i had been using the machine to sew brown paper dresses for my imaginary children...but that is a story for another day.

On this day,my mother came back sad,she had been harassed by some masquerades who had sprung from nowhere unto the road with machetes and whips and mother had to give them some money before they let her and the motorcycle she was riding on pass and on getting home my grandmother had to be the one to pay the motorcycle rider.

It was then that i understood how much of a menace the Ekpo Masquerades had become,there had been an ongoing debate in the state to have them banned,but i was puzzled because Ekpo masquerades were supposed to be ancestors who had returned to earth to dance at celebrations and village festivals.

This was their initial motto,but apparently the masquerades had grown into an entity of its own and had set up their own rules. These ancestors thus resorted to scaring women and children whenever they came out,sometimes even the men were not spared. They were dressed in green palm leaves with huge masks often black and their bodies were black ,truly like the dead,the wore bells on their ankles to warn everyone of their approach but the truly mean ones wore only wooden beads and would sneak up on anyone from the bushes and give you such a fright you would scamper and hide.

Ekpo masquerades were truly scary,on days when they were set to appear,i would eat to my fill and then stand outside the compound very close to the road side to catch a glimpse of the masquerades. once i spotted them ,because they usually moved in groups ,i would run into the house and peep from behind the curtains of my grandfathers living room,and when that set had passed i would come back out to the road again,anticipating another set .

The masquerades were eventually banned when their notoriety became extreme and they began to use machetes to cut people who wouldn't give them money. 

One day at dawn,i had gotten up very early to look for mangoes behind our house,no one else was awake,as i opened the door to the backyard,i saw my uncle and some of his friends,covered in black charcoal paint,beside them lay some palm-fronts and ekpo masks,as soon as they spotted me he screamed at me to go back into the house,i ran back immediately,and that was when i understood why the masquerades always wanted money,dead ancestors would not have needed money,they used cowries in their time,or didn't they????