Liminality

Iconography

Linguistics

Igbo

Philosophy

Gender studies

Visual arts

Anthropology

Pottery

Aesthetics

Sociology

History

Cogent Arts and Humanities

This study seeks to interpret the iconography and ethno-aesthetic of Adada masquerade of the Nsukka Igbo people of Southeastern Nigeria, an iconic system imbued with mystical aura and uncommon beauty. Adada is also a compendium of Igbo cultural history and a storehouse of Igbo knowledge and worldview. Despite its socio-cultural significance in the life of Nsukka Igbo people, Adada masquerade has not received deserved attention of scholars and researchers. Building on Victor Turner's theory of cultural liminality which identifies a betwixt and between state in the middle phase of rites of passage, the study examines how the cultural ingredients of Adada masquerade anchor, ritualize and project the cultural identity of Nsukka Igbo people within the changing fields of society. Art historical approach was used in analyzing data collected through fieldwork carried out in three communities in Nsukka Igbo area. This involved participant observation in Adada masquerade performance in Ovoko community in 2014, photographic documentation of the masquerade and oral interviews with 17 relevant stakeholders comprising masquerade initiates and elders in the three communities. The iconography and aesthetics of Adada contain irresistible cultural ingredients that reveal how Nsukka Igbo people contained the liminal conditions of cross-cultural encounters. However, Adada's absence from the public space in recent times shows how acculturative agents like Christian evangelism, urbanism and modernism have adversely affected the willingness to animate the masquerade whose outing and performance is both entertaining and didactic.

Reappraising the iconography and ethno-aesthetics of Adada masquerade of the Nsukka Igbo, southeast Nigeria