The Owu-Aru sun festival was previously celebrated in bugama city in 1908, 1927, 1973, 1991, 2009 by the Ekine Sekiapu under the leadership of the opu edi. The festival is a series of masquerade display the kalabari people of the Niger delta region, oral tradition has it that the festival is usually performed after the exhaustion of the various masquerades owned by both the community and the groups or compounds which usually last for 15-20 years.

The Owu-aru- sun festival is the highest cultural display ever witnessed in the socio cultural realm of the kalabari people. The masked players are said to represent water spirits(OWU), to whom the ekine minister. The beautiful scenario of masquerade in their colorful outfits and special dance steps and styles depicting the various compound or group they represent is a sight to behold. After the dance the OWU are said to return to the ocean where the reside.

Some of these masquerades are owned by particular chiefs and compounds while some are owned by the entire community. Some of these masquerades owned by compounds are:

  • The Peri-gbo owned by George’s Compound
  • The Alagba owned by Abbi Group
  • The Gbasa owned by The Ombo Group
  • The Bekinaru sibi owned by Wokoma Compound

The major masquerades usually have their ceremonies during the dry seasons with about three plays annually over a long period. After the last group of masquerades have performed, the ekine sikiapu, through the town crier, notifies the villagers of the need for preparation for the next OWU-ARU SUN ALALI(Festival).

The town crier also known as KPOKPO GBO LA BO, after performing this task, consults with the head chiefs of the various canoe houses and compounds who own masquerades on how to put up excellent performances during the festival.

The Sekiapu must perform special sacrifices two days prior to the festival with white male cock, an egg, the split finger of plantain and a piece of white cloth. These sacrifices would be performed at strategic points such as the waterside of the national deity of the kalabari people: OWAMESO, the entrance of the ekine house, the entrance of adum: the head of the local water spirits, oferema etele: an ancient sacred path in the north west part of the town and ebe boko: an inlet off the main river leading towards the ocean. The essence of these sacrifices is to appease the dieties and also plead with them to ensure peace and prevent evil forces from obstructing the ongoing procession of the water spirits.

The head pieces of the various masquerades must be set up in the ancestral shrine of the various owners. The head chiefs and the male members of the group would perform the necessary purification and sacrifices. During this process the smaller houses would come up with requests for favors, protections and provisions from the spririts while making their requests, the women folk would assemble in front of the ancestral memorial hall: inkpu, singing praise songs of the masquerades.

In the midst of all these, the purification chief; igba alabo holding a glass of gin in one hand and an egg in the other, would pour libation to the seven founding fathers of kalabari: AMABIAME,ENDEME, KOROME, ITURUAME, AKIALAME, IGBODOME AND BUKUME) standing by the shrine of obiana: owame akaso daughter. He would invoke all the water spirits in ekine to come out the following day and return to the ocean ofter the owu aru sun celebration. After making the libation with the glass of gin, he would place the egg on the obiana’s shrine.

The ekine(which is its proper name and sekiapu(which are the dancers) are the custodians of kalabari customs and traditions, right from the ancestral days( Elem Ama) till date. The Ekine also formed the nucleus of the traditional government of the kalabari people which includes making and maintenance of law, including matters of arbitration where punishments were also given to offenders according to the laws of the land.

On the actual day of the celebration. The entire masquerade from the various groups and compounds would line up in front of their ancestral hall and escorted from there to the town square amdist cheers. Where they are greeted by the chief drummer: akwa alabo and shows a little display of their distinctive dance steps before taking a bow into the ekine hall.

The patron goddess of the masquerades: ekine alabo would pour libation to the mamatemeso with a bottle of gin and glass on the completion of the series of plays of the water spirits and the journey back to the ocean, this is done when all the expected masquerade groups have gathered at the King Amachree Square.

The ekine alabo asks for safe journey back to the spirit world and

an assurance of their return in the next fextival. After that, the chief drummer: akwa alabo summons the masqueraded and sekiapu for the final procession with the ikiroko drum with igba alabo taking the lead and closely followed by the opu-edi (head of the sekiapu) and ekine alabo. Following this procession is the tari oboko(First paddler in the water spirits’ canoe) masquerade, and all the other masquerade that had participated in the last series of plays with the ofor(helmsman) masquerade taking the lead would follow.

It is worthy of note that tari book and ofor do not feature in the series of plays, they perfom only at owu aru sun, the masquerade calmer(owu-koribo). Who must be a member of the sekiapu ogbo would escort the masquerades which are on a line with unmasked sekiapu dressed in elaborate traditional attire of donne or woko and capped with ajibulu: head dress or bowler hat.

The procession moves slowly in an anti-clock wise direction around amachree square to a special rhythm for ofor the helmsman. The akwa alabo calls the names of the various deities and ancestors of the masquerades and sekiapu of the mentioned houses responding by pointing towards their various shrines, after which they would return to the ekine meeting house for a rest having completed the third round of dance.

At intervals the ikaki(tortoise) masquerade who is the comical trickster would entertain spectators, after about 20-30 minutes of rest, the procession of masquerades would line up again to begin another three rounds of display. As it completes this procession, the chief drummer changes to the sending down of spirits drums: owu iderima akwa. The special sound of which means the embarkation of the spirits.

At this point the purification priest retrieves the egg, and holding it in his left hand and his iron purification horn in his right hand, lead the procession on its final trip.

As soon as he approaches the entrance of the southern path of the main street, he runs off from the line and heads down to the waterside (owu sera) with a group of young sekiapu rushing ahead of him with can in hand chasing away women on their way. All the masquerades following him also back off on approaching the main street.

When they arrive at the waterside the purification priest reminds the gods in an incantation of his requests of the previous evening regards safe journey to the spirit world. After pleading with the spirits pilot them safely to the ocean, he throws the egg into the river and also passes the ivory horn anti clock wise round his head and dips it into the water. this action he would repeat seven times, ensures that any evil force among them that may cause disruption of the journey to the spirit world would be defeated.

After performing the purification rites, the masquerades players would strip themselves of their head pieces and costumes and dive into the water one after the other, this symbolizes that the water spirits were on their journey back to the ocean, the masquerade calmer would escort the masquerades back to their various memorial halls where they would dress up in their regular clothes.

The ekine sekiapu would after a few days roll the ikiriko drums into the replica of the ancient town well (ama sube) signifying the end of the masquerade season.