Colonial discourse, poetic language, and the Igbo masquerading culture in Ezenwa-Ohaeto's The Voice of the Night Masquerade

Abstract

Until the recent effacement of aspects of the Igbo traditional values through the combined and sustained conspiracy of Western colonialism and Christian evangelical missions, the masquerade was one of the most venerated symbols of the people's social cohesion. It was particularly revered for its juridical functions in many Igbo communities. Whereas it provided entertainment to the communities, it was also often evoked as the most important symbol of justice amongst the people. This paper offers a critical reading of Ezenwa-Ohaeto's The Voice of the Night Masquerade, a work of rare achievement that brings into focus not only aspects of the cultural idiosyncrasies of the Igbo of South Eastern Nigeria through the cultural genre of the night masquerade, but also does so with an elegance that resurrects the age-long question on the nature of the language of traditional African poetry which engaged scholars like Chinweizu and his team, Wole Soyinka, and many others during the long, and continuing quest for the decolonization of the African mind. It locates aspects of Igbo language and culture through the vision and mannerism of Ezenwa-Ohaeto. The Voice of the Night Masquerade, it concludes, is particularly relevant because its ethics and aesthetics provide profound insight as a postcolonial statement in social equipoise that debunks colonialist civilizational assumptions of Africa.