Carnival Calabar1 is an annual international event that occurs around Christmas time in the city of Calabar in Cross River State, Nigeria. The festivities offer a platform that displays cultural hybridity, translating Caribbean carnival aesthetics in a local context that values fun but also provides an avenue for addressing important social, cultural, and political issues. Carnival Calabar tells a story that is uniquely our own, full of joy, pain, triumph, and struggle. From the point of view of a costume designer, I will explain how the visual language of carnival links the conversation on migration and helps us to understand the past, present, and future.Each year the state government, through the Carnival Commission, chooses a broad theme encompassing many stories that are first and foremost part of human experience, not limited to a specific time or culture. Themes over the years include: Carnival Queen (2005), Our Beauty, Our Culture (2006), Celebrating Our Heritage through Culture (2007); Sustaining Earth Treasures through Our Culture (2008), Land of Our Birth, Our People, Our Heritage (2009); Our Strength and Resilience, the Bedrock of Our Future (2010); Endless Possibilities (2011); Celebrating a New Dawn (2012); Ain't No Stopping Us (2013); Celebration Time, 10th Anniversary (2014); Climate Change (2015); Climate Change (2016); Migration (2017); Africanism (2018); Humanity (2019).I design costumes for the Passion 4, the band who won in 2017. Our band has won the most competitions for best band (eleven times out of fourteen) so I'm proud to be a contributing member of this group. Costumes, as Barbieri (2018) finds, are principal ingredients for interpreting and communicating understanding about a performance to the audience and enhance visuals for the performance. Passion 4 competes annually with the other major bands such as Freedom Band, Master Blaster, Seagulls, and Bayside. There are other noncompeting bands from government organizations, such as the Joint Military and Paramilitary Band and the Governor's Band; and from sponsors such as First Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Dangote (a large African manufacturer and supplier across Africa). The competition bands, or the major bands, have remained the same from carnival's inception.1 The judging categories focus on floats, band on the move, costume and make up, interpretation of theme, best reflection of carnival spirit.2 The obstacles to putting together such a large and complex event are many.My account of the 2017 Carnival Calabar and the theme, Migration, is intended to share insight into the visual language of carnival design created with visual metaphors built from textiles, costumes, props, floats, and performances that traversed the twelve-kilometer route through a city that has been at the center of numerous migrations. Dancers’ feet move across the land that fueled the Bantu migrations, enabled a major outlet for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and continues to spark many modern-day journeys. The theme of migration allowed us to create awareness of the issues around migration as it applies to Africa in general and Cross River State in particular so that both positive and negative impacts of migration are highlighted. As a designer I attempt to create an awareness of contemporary issues in order to promote public awareness and to appeal to those in authority so that we might work together to create positive change. All of these stories came together in 2017 in a street performance that required endurance, fortitude, and grit.The history of Carnival Calabar itself is embedded in complex histories of journeys of many kinds. Prior to 2005, there was no costumed carnival in Calabar. In 2004, Donald Duke, the governor of Cross River State, along with a group of commissioners went to Trinidad and Tobago to see their carnival, which inspired them to establish Carnival Calabar. Chris Agibe, who was part of that delegation, become one of the founders of Carnival Calabar and a band leader for Passion 4. In 2005, a street parade was organized with Carnival Queen as the theme.3 With the introduction of Carnival Calabar, a Trinidadian tradition returned to Africa (Carlson 2010), meaning that African influences upon the Caribbean carnivals have come back to the continent. This would foreshadow our current call for Africans of the diaspora to make their own return journey.As with prior themes, “migration” is first and foremost part of human experience, not limited to a specific time or culture. But as we design our costumes, props, floats, and performances, we attempt to highlight this aspect of humanity that also tells a story that will resonate with our audience—made up of people from across the region of different ethnic backgrounds, Africans from across Nigeria and beyond, Nigerians in the diasporas, and other international guests. Because Carnival Calabar takes place at the height of the holiday season, many people come home at this time of year. The large in-person audience is supplemented by the many viewers who watch via live broadcasts or recorded programs through regulated networks or self-produced DVDs sold via informal networks.The competing bands are judged for overall best band based on how well they have interpreted the theme, in addition to other elements such as the king and queen, floats, costumes, creativity, color, fabric, accessories, props, and neatness. Interpretation of theme is an important rating, as it is the essence of the band's presentation. Over the years, areas of adjudication have varied.4 According to the 2005 Adjudication Mark Sheet, the areas of judging were formation, entertainment quality, homogeneity and spirit of Calabar carnival, ingenuity and theme, appeal, artistic flair, body adornment and hair artistry, traditional elements of dance, costumes, songs, use of props, creative style presentation, organization, spectacle, discipline, and overall appeal. Since then, other categories like band structure, costume and make-up, carriage, and choreography were added and others were merged.Band revelers, as the performers are called, are selected from interested members of the public who pay a token fee to register as band members, though in recent years the band has rather paid revelers to perform. A date is fixed for rehearsals and revelers are selected for various sections based on their performance skills. There are specific sections, called “performing sections,” that execute choreographed dances developed to interpret the theme and taught by dance instructors. The other sections are called wakapass (a pidgin English phrase that means someone who walks past) but still dance “free style,” where the group chooses how to dance, as opposed to one of the bigger choreographed productions. Moreover, every section is divided into groups that are named according to the theme of their outfits. The band's music team selects songs, mostly by Nigerian artists, that complement what the sections represent. The music, which must be loud, comes from a sound system with massive speakers operated by a DJ and carried on a truck that drives beside the revelers on the day of carnival. Food and drinks are also supplied to the performers to give them the energy needed to perform. Each band consists of 800 to 1,500 revelers, which makes for a powerful presence given the number of energetic performers moving in unison. The number of revelers in each section varies according to the importance of the section in the band's narrative and their interpretation of the theme.My experience as lecturer in an art school (I teach textile design at University of Cross River State) and as a practicing artist, designer, and tailor have informed my work over seventeen years as a costume designer for Passion 4. The process of costume production begins when the theme of the carnival is announced, which typically happens between March and August. The carnival is organized by the state government, which is the major sponsor. After the carnival theme for the year is announced, the government disburses money to each band to aid in the production of the costumes, props, and floats. The band research team meets to interpret the theme. After a consensus is reached, I begin to explore and experiment with ways to bring the interpretation to life with costumes.I design costumes with colorful feathers and elegant fabrics in a variety of styles that include bikinis, which have become a trademark of carnival, provoking both joy and offense in local audiences due to complex local standards of decorum (Figs. 1–5). I also study cultural and traditional festivals in Nigeria and other African countries with a view to developing cultural motifs and designs to decorate fabrics for costumes and other uses (see Nnochiri 2017: 213-25; Nnochiri et al. 2018: 110-16). A typical example is Queen Mugaji, epitome of regeneration and the Passion 4 queen for 2016. The fabrics used carry cultural motifs inspired by the monolith and nsibiri/nsibidi symbols (Fig. 6).As a designer, I draw inspiration from the costumes of the Trinidad and Tobago, Brazilian, and Notting Hill carnivals. Backpack costumes, glitter, gemstones, and such have been incorporated from these influences. The state government has even brought costume designers from the Caribbean to mentor and teach us about designing for carnival. In addition to these sources, I also study cultural and traditional festivals in Nigeria and other African countries. Therefore, our designs bring something unique to the carnival aesthetic with the inclusion of local materials and styles.As a designer, I create sketches, visual illustrations of costumes and props as would best interpret the theme, choose colors to enhance the costumes as well, select materials and accessories and styles that will be exciting, giving visibility to the band. Successful costumes allow audiences to easily interpret and understand the messages that they portray. Judges evaluate costumes based on the following categories: color, creative construction, fabric and materials used in interpretation of the theme, and aerial dominance (how well they can be seen from a distance and from multiple angles). I begin the design process with color—a critical aspect of carnival costumes that can draw from monochromatic, analogous, or contrasting color schemes that can be used in complementary harmonies and in many variations. In some ways costumes use the streets as a canvas, with performers painting brilliant displays of color along the 12 km carnival route. Colors can help convey ideas and themes, but they also work to solidify group identity. They are very important to the aesthetic display for carnival and are one of the key components of the Carnival Calabar parade. Babson Ajibade and Sarah Obongha (2012), in referring to the use of colors in Carnival Calabar, find that colors are used not arbitrarily but consciously. They locate color in cross-cultural similarity and the individual's perception of global interpretations and see colors as playing a significant role in the Carnival Calabar, describing the carnival as a festival of colors.The prototypes are created and, after approval by the band leader, the costumes are mass produced according to sections and the number of revelers. However, in 2017 the theme was announced in July, but funds were not released until two weeks prior to the carnival. This required improvisation, because we could not source materials from elsewhere and a team of seventy people worked around the clock to complete to costumes in time. While perfection is desirable, we were prepared to do what it took to make carnival happen. Moreover, carnival started late that year and finished the morning of the next day at 7 am. Many spectators were exhausted and went home for the night, so they were not at the stadium to watch the final performance, leaving only the adjudicators, band officials, and a handful of spectators. Revelers were performing in an almost empty stadium—a far cry from the ecstatic crowds of other years!So, why did I choose this particular carnival to discuss? While this particular installment of carnival will not be remembered for its overall success, I will argue that it represents an extraordinary commitment to the artform and contains valuable insights into the hopes and dreams of the people who make this happen. In 2017, we collectively reflected upon both historical and contemporary experiences of migrations and their impact upon contemporary Nigerian society. While the performance itself may have lacked the polish of other years, the stories held a powerful reminder that carnival is not simply a flashy spectacle. It also provides a platform of expression to celebrate and critique the world around us.When people see carnival, with its exciting performances, they may not think of the designers and makers involved in this complex performance. I will now describe how the theme of migration was interpreted by Passion 4 through a series of stories and what design elements we created to carry the theme to the winner's circle.Bands give a title to their performance as you would for a play. In 2017, Passion 4 performed The Black Bird. The scripted synopsis, which was printed out and handed to the judges on the day of carnival, explained the symbolism of the black bird. There is one local species of black bird that migrates annually for mating and to avoid unfavorable conditions during changing seasons. Like the black bird, Africans frequently migrate to America, Europe, and Asia, temporarily or permanently, for similar reasons. The overarching theme of this presentation involves their trials, tribulations, and general experiences abroad and calls upon them to come back home and use their experiences to contribute meaningfully to nation building and to the improvement of the socioeconomic lives of Africans.Passion 4's presentation was organized into seven sections: (a) Black Bird in the Nest, (b) Forced Flight, (c) Ruffled Feathers, (d) Fly Away Peter, Fly Away Paul, (e) Great Expectations, (f) Come Back Peter, Come Back Paul, (g) Come Back My Black Birds and Build Our Nation. Like acts in a play or chapters in a book, these sections create narratives that compare forced migration (the trans-Atlantic slave trade) and voluntary migration (individuals who chose to leave Africa in search of opportunity) and the resulting consequences. These theatrical performances address history in broad strokes in order to reinforce the powerful storyline of past glories, complicated present realities, and bright futures.The discussion of each of the seven sections shows how the glories of African pasts were interrupted by European involvement, first with the trans-Atlantic slave trade (1526-1867) and then colonialism (1885-1960)—both events that had a profound impact upon Calabar and the Cross River region.6 In modern times there arose a gleam of hope for improved standards of living for Black men and women in the diasporas. Many Africans began to migrate to the Americas, Europe, Asia, and other places in search of the Golden Fleece (the good life)—a desirable but challenging and sometimes elusive reality. The people who migrated were divided in their experiences, both good and bad. The carnival theme of migration addressed an important contemporary issue in Nigeria and indeed Africa, as many Africans hinge their hope of survival and standard of living on migration out of Africa. Designing costumes for migration created awareness of the circumstances and consequences of both voluntary and forced migration, making the imagination more vivid. It was more a call to creativity to enable the spectators understand the story of migration with the attendant ills and gains.Africa here is likened to the blackbirds who move in flocks and are known for long, melodious songs; these attributes could likewise describe the carnival band itself. To begin, the analogy describes Africa before European contact when Africans were safe, secure, and comfortable in their nest (territory). The band intentionally begins with the glories of our prosperous past, inspired by the rich history of this region. We wanted to portray Africans as hardworking and successful, with powerful social and economic institutions. According to the 2017 Passion 4 synopsis, “Africans of that time were rare breed of strength, courage, and humility all in one, they were at peace with themselves, their land, and their neighbors.” Though they had occasional disputes, they devised ways of settling such using the ekpe, a traditional secret society and judicial system, and recording their history and judgments with nsibiri/nsibidi scripts, pictorial ideographs used by initiates. In this sense, this first section was devoted to traditional rituals.The band was led by a set of thirty girls, known as “front girls,” in costumes made from African wax prints, satin, beads, and feathers (Fig. 7). Front girls, introduced by Passion 4 band leader Chris Agibe, are young, beautiful girls, mostly from the university, between the ages of 18-25, who are slim and excel at dancing. They announce the band with flamboyant outfits that include the signature green color of Passion 4. Their role is not necessarily to interpret the theme but to usher in the band with a stunning display of beauty. Their outfits consist of a brassiere top and collar, made from ankara and embellished with beads and gemstones (for luster), which is paired with a hip-hugging skirt with rich green frills. Ankara is a term that is widely used for African print cloth that has both modern and traditional applications. Ankara also has a complex relationship with the European fabric producers who originally marketed these cloths to Africans; this can add to the complexity of their meaning. Ankara stitched over cotton cord is used to create what look like the beaded skirts worn by local women in traditional rites of passage, known as ekombi and moninkim. The skirts exaggerate the waistline, which is the focus of this style of dance. While these dances are now performed at a variety of events, they were originally performed after a young girl attained adulthood and was ready for marriage. As in traditional coming of age ceremonies, the woman's skin is oiled so that it glows in the African sun; glitter is often added to exaggerate the effect.Following the front girls is a group of men between the ages of 25-35, who carry oversized replicas of traditional African masks cast in sculptural relief with fiber and backed by wooden plywood (Fig. 8). Though masks typically cover the face and conceal the dancer's identity, for the purpose of the carnival they are placed above the head on a metal framework, revealing the face of the wearer and creating a type of spectacle with aerial dominance for maximum effect as the band moves along the course. We decided to have men carry these masks when we discovered that we had designed something that was incredibly heavy. A second set of lighter masks can be more easily carried by both men and women (Fig. 9). These representations of masks have nothing to do with the context of masquerades that are performed regularly in the region. Carnival offers an opportunity to play with traditional themes outside of the ritual context as a way to celebrate them without attempting to duplicate them. In Nigeria and many parts of west Africa, masquerading is predominantly performed by men, along with restrictions of the ways that women can interact with masquerades even though the performances themselves might honor women (Njoku 2020). However, with Carnival Calabar we are free to work without restriction, as it is done for fun to either celebrate traditions or satirize and theatrically expose the ills of the society.Almost every village or community in Nigerian society has a village square, which serves as a muster point and recreational arena where people gather in the evenings to socialize; tell stories of legends, bravery, and different accomplishments; and dance. Carnival is entirely different from those environments, but these elements of carnival speak to the traditions’ centrality to who we are. The rules of traditional masquerading do not apply to the carnival because carnival's creativity derives inspiration from traditions but does not replicate them. However, if there is need to play the traditional masquerade as it is, a traditional group of initiates are invited to play in the carnival. This section concludes with African dancers (Fig. 10), who move with verve and vigor and explode with energy, strength, and vibrancy. Dancing is an integral part of the African being; it communicates with every bounce, twist, arm flaring, and waist jiggle. No body part is left out and every step counts.For this reason, plump ladies were selected for this section and their hair was in a traditional hairstyle. Like the front girls, the costume was inspired by the traditional moninkim bikini style and was modified with a flap for a more tailored element in order to make it look more stylish and contemporary. Both the bikini and the moninkim costumes expose the body, but while the moninkim style originated in Africa to showcase female beauty, the bikini originated in the West as women's swimwear. The costume was embellished with artificial cowries bought from the Ariaria market, a popular market in the town of Aba in neighboring Abia state. Tufted arm and leg bands in yellow and orange created a sharp contrast with the black/animal body costume, while differentiating the male from the female gender. The use of animal skin in the section evokes African cultural dress, as animal skin has been used as clothing in many indigenous African cultures; this context corroborates the assertion of Ettagale Blauer (1999) that animal skin is worn as a mark of belonging, pride, honor, elegance, and power in Africa.A printed banner—a mobile prop—introduces the next section, which shows a bird ready to take flight as if preparing for migration during a period when Africans were free to move in search of food and conducive weather, for family and tribal expansion and for safety. The joy and peaceful coexistence of the African man as illustrated in the first section was halted when Europeans (the Portuguese and the British) landed on the shores of west Africa and initiated the transatlantic slave trade. During this period, millions of Africans were forcefully taken from western and central Africa and transported by ships to the Americas, with a large number of them dying either in transit or in captivity from being subjected to inhumane treatment, malnutrition, diseases, and extreme levels of brutality. To reflect the oppression and suffering of slavery, costumes are designed in a simplistic style and devoid of ornamentation and luster but sparsely embellished with raffia.Just like a bird whose nest has been disturbed and its feathers ruffled, the savage nature of the transatlantic slave trade led to the death of individuals as well as cultural and societal structures. It further diminished Africa's opportunity to develop economically and uphold its social and political stability, causing a prolonged ripple effect. These negative impacts gave rise to other hardships represented through the themes Drought and Famine, Poor Political Leadership, Violence, and Unemployment. Thus, this section explores these prolonged hardships that often force individuals to migrate.In recent years, drought and famine have impacted countries like Ethiopia, Sudan, and Nigeria, some worse than others. Severely erratic and below-average rainfall results in widespread food scarcity and malnutrition, poor livestock conditions, and consequently mass movement of populations within and across borders. The Passion 4 costumes and props for this group utilize the color brown, reminiscent of withering and drying vegetation, dry soil, and farm produce that can no longer serve as food.People also migrate to evade violence. The most easily recognized form of violence is physical violence, which is often the result of social and political unrest brought on by unequal power and consequently unequal life chances. Dancers in this section exhibit roughness, disorganization, violence, and poor judgement and wear outfits in red and black, associated with anger and violence, among other things. Shirts were roughly tucked in to the trouser on one end and collars are turned up. This choreographed dance of violence includes the use of prop guns and is a far cry from beads and bikinis.At the front of everyone's mind is the problem of extreme unemployment in Nigeria, where most youth have lost hope of finding a job, inflicting a state of unrest or forced idleness. While carnival may be a welcome distraction from this everyday reality, the issue is front and center with a section of performers wearing graduation gowns (Fig. 11). The joy and pride of graduation is represented through kente, a cloth that originated in Ghana, which has been adopted by graduates worldwide as an expression of Black pride (Ross 1998: 8). Nigeria produces over 1.8 million graduates each year from its tertiary institutions, who expect to get well-paid jobs, a better standard of living, and increased social status. However, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (2017) states that Nigeria has an official unemployment rate of over 18.8%, which may underestimate a much harsher reality. This section highlights the profound imbalance between the number of graduates and the number of vacancies in both government and private establishments. Individual characters appear, such as big politicians, professors, and religious leaders, who collect the certificates giving graduates false hopes that never materialize (Figs. 12–13). He is happy when the people queue behind him and eat from the crumbs he is gracious enough to hand out. He wears a large flowing, shimmering, opulent costume, entirely sequined, with a border design and in a bright red color to show his strength, opulence, wealth, and control.The famous English nursery rhyme about two black birds is used as an analogy in this section. Just like the fabled black birds Peter and Paul, many people have left the shores of Africa in search of a better life; they choose to sever all ties with their motherland and move on to perceived better things. This section chronicles the many aspects of contemporary migration that are well known through personal tales and news reports.The section begins with “legitimate migrants,” carrying international passports and suitcases as props, who leave of their own accord to pursue dreams like education, better jobs, business, and other positive legitimate ideas and incentives. The costume is simple and convenient for travelling (Fig. 14), created with green and pale yellow materials complemented with feathers and assorted accessories. Those who do not have sponsors or the ability to procure visas must travel by foot or by donkey through the Sahara desert and North Africa on their way to Europe.This treacherous journey across the desert was represented by performers in costumes made to look as if they were riding donkeys (Fig. 15). A metal armature of the donkey was constructed and dressed with fabric. A space in the middle, where the reveler's body can fit, gave the impression of sitting on the donkey. The donkey was then hung on the shoulder of the reveler using a rope made with fabric. Some of the smuggled migrants are caught by the authorities and sued for various offenses while crossing through Libya and are held indefinitely in jails or migrant detention centers (Fig. 16), where they are exposed to ill treatment, anti-Black racism, poor sanitary conditions, and made vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking (Department of State 2021). We constructed a Libyan jail out of metal bars, wood, and paper and attached wheels so that it could be pushed along the road. Performers in prison uniforms act out scenes of maltreatment with a prison warden.The fate of migrants is illustrated in dramatic detail. The costumes in this section are made mostly of matte grey cotton fabrics to suggest the suffering and oppression that migrants are subjected to. The conscious use of grey is symbolic to express the unpleasant experiences of the migrants. Paper chains denote that they have no freedom. When migrant warehouses and jails overflow or when the trafficking agents who promised to get the migrants to western Europe run out of money, some migrants are sold into slavery for as low as $400 to serve as farm laborers. Often, the slave traders who purchase them may try to resell them to their families, demanding absurdly high ransoms. Some of the prisoners are sold to work as laborers; others are sold to organ harvesters who mutilate their bodies and extract their organs, especially their kidneys, which are sold to make money. Others attempt to cross the Mediterranean piled by the thousands into small boats and ships as they make the hazardous journey across the sea. Many people die during this crossing and all their hope of a better standard of living perishes with them. This was represented by a float made with a wooden frame and covered with brown fabric, while a light blue fabric was ruffled at the base to depict the sea. Many migrants leave the shores of Nigeria for the West with very high expectations of what life will be like in the “civilized world.” Expectations of prosperous living and delusions of grandeur are replaced with realities that are not so pleasant.Realizing that opportunities offered in the “developed world” are not always a bed of roses, migrants can be understood as “brown patches on green lawns,” a reference to the position of darker-skinned people in the deceptively manicured landscapes of foreign countries. This reality is dramatically performed through a representation of demeaning a