They arrive as a declaration rather than an invitation. Raffia fibres sway, skirts brush the ground, carved faces remain still while bodies move beneath them. In Ugwuoba, an Igbo community in present-day Enugu State along the Awka, Enugu corridor, masquerade performance is understood as a public signal. When masked figures step into open space, the village recognises that a seasonal threshold has been crossed.
The atmosphere shifts immediately. Drumming draws people from compounds and footpaths. Elders take their places with calm attention. Children hover at the edge of excitement and caution. The masquerade does not simply entertain, it announces that the community has entered a moment that carries meaning beyond ordinary time.
A Photograph That Holds a Season
One of the most widely circulated images of this moment was taken in 1959 by photographer Eliot Elisofon and is preserved in the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. The photograph captures masked dancers in motion during the Onwa Asaa season in Ugwuoba, freezing a scene that was once loud with drums and movement.
The image shows more than costume. It shows posture, spacing, and collective attention. Spectators are not scattered or casual. They are gathered, focused, and aware that what they are witnessing belongs to a recognised seasonal event tied to harvest and communal life.
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Why Yam Sits at the Centre of the Season
To understand why masquerades appear at this time, it helps to begin with yam. In many Igbo communities, yam is more than a staple crop. It represents endurance through the farming season, careful planning, and the ability to sustain a household. Yam cultivation has long been associated with effort, responsibility, and social standing.
The New Yam Festival, known by names such as Iri Ji Ohuru or Iwa ji, marks the moment when the community turns from last season’s stored food to the first tasting of the new harvest. This transition is treated with care. The first yams are not eaten in private haste but welcomed through recognised rites that involve community participation.
The festival brings together gratitude for survival, respect for the land, and acknowledgment of shared labour. It is as much about order and timing as it is about celebration.
Onwa Asaa as a Seasonal Marker
Onwa Asaa is commonly used in parts of Igboland as a name associated with the New Yam festival season. The term reflects local ways of reckoning time, rooted in agricultural rhythm and traditional month naming rather than fixed civil dates. It signals that the season of readiness has arrived, when the old harvest is giving way to the new.
Rather than functioning as a strict calendar month, Onwa Asaa operates as a seasonal marker. It gathers together harvest timing, ritual preparation, and communal expectation into a single phrase that people understand without needing explanation.
The Role of the Masquerade
During Onwa Asaa, the masquerade helps transform the New Yam Festival from preparation into public reality. Its appearance marks the shift from ordinary routines to ceremonial time. The dancer becomes a moving sign that the season has opened.
Across Igbo masquerade traditions, performers are male, regardless of the character suggested by the mask. The mask is not treated as the individual’s personal identity but as a recognised form with its own rules and boundaries. This separation shapes how people respond. Some masquerades invite applause and closeness, others demand space and restraint.
Performance is never random. Masquerade dancers are prepared, guided, and expected to uphold community standards. Movement, interaction, and timing follow local custom. The audience responds not as passive spectators but as participants in a shared event that reinforces belonging.
A Season of Return and Renewal
The New Yam season is also a time of reunion. Families return home. Compounds fill. Greetings stretch into long conversations. Contemporary reporting on Igbo New Yam celebrations often highlights increased travel, extended visits, and public gatherings during this period.
These returns strengthen more than family ties. They renew social bonds, reinforce hospitality, and restore a sense of collective identity. The village becomes whole again, even if only for a season.
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The First Tasting
When the first yams are finally eaten after the appropriate rites, the act carries weight. It marks the completion of another agricultural cycle and affirms that the harvest has been received in the right way. The moment blends relief, pride, and gratitude.
In this context, the masquerade’s role becomes clear. It is part of the framework that ensures the season is approached with attention and respect. The dancer’s presence helps hold the community in a shared rhythm, celebration shaped by restraint, abundance welcomed with acknowledgment.
The masquerades captured in the 1959 Ugwuoba photograph belong to this framework. Their appearance signals harvest time, ceremony, and the collective agreement to receive the season together.
Author’s Note
What endures in Onwa Asaa is not only the colour and movement, but the patience behind them. Before the first yam is tasted, the community pauses, gathers, and remembers that abundance carries responsibility. In that pause lives the strength of the tradition.
References
Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives, Eliot Elisofon Field collection, EEPA 1973 001, record for “Igbo masked dancers performing during the Onwa Asaa festival, Ugwuoba village, Nigeria, 1959.”
Manus, U. C. (2007). The Sacred Festival of Iri Ji Ohuru in Igboland, Nigeria, Nordic Journal of African Studies 16(2), 244–260.
Ujumadu, V. et al. (2017). New Yam, A phenomenal festival in Igboland, Vanguard News, 23 August 2017.`
