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Social
control is exercised through the use of masks and figures representing
good and evil spirits in the Igbo and Ibibio tribes from Nargeria. Ekpo
is the Ibibio word for “ancestor,” as well as the name of the principal
masking society, its masks, and the dances that commemorate the
deceased. The members of the ekpo society play a political,
legislative, judiciary, and religious role in the village. It is a
graded association in charge of the ancestor cult and includes two
types of masks: the first, the idiok, is ugly and evokes wandering
spirits, as compared to the mfon, which is handsome and represents
spirits who have reached paradise. The Ibo
use thousands of masks, which incarnate the spirits or the dead.
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