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You Are Here:
 Home>About Akwa Ibom>People>Culture>Cultural Dance
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"The Akwa Ibom Project involves attitudinal re-orientation;
cultivation of a positive mindset; instilling self-confidence through massive empowerment
of our people; and the inculcation of the moral values of hard work, courage, honesty,
service and pragmatic peaceful co-existence"
- Akpabio
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The lyrics in Asian Uboikpa primarily reiterate what these girls were taught during
Mbopo (fattening confinement)
such as Esang Garri Ewara Ubok home management, Ukama
Eyen Ikake Eka childcare among other home theme songs. Asian Uboikpa is usually
performed during the outing ceremony of Mbopo when the girls celebrate with their
mates who have successfully gone through the rigours of fattening room drills. Here
the girls display beauty, elegance and grace to the admiration of the spectators
whose relations are perhaps potential suitors anxious to choose a wife.
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Asian Ubo Ikpa
Asian Uboikpa, means the pride of the maiden. This dance is performed by maidens
between the age of 18 and 25 who have successfully gone through the ‘Mbopo’ institution.
Mbopo being the period a girl is confined, flattened and drilled on all aspects
of home management in preparation for marriage. It is common in almost all the hinterland
of the State. Performed by maidens at their prime. Asian
Uboikpa, therefore, is in its visual appeal celebrates and affirm the youthful innocence
and purity in their beauty, while showcasing the popular admonition among the Akwa
Ibom people that chastity once lost is lost forever.
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Oko
Oko is the male dance which is likened to the war dance because of its ferocious
displays. The climax of this dance starts when the dancers’ starts slashing at one
another with razor sharp machetes and firing at themselves with live bullets from
Dane guns. But mysteriously, not a drop of blood is shed as the machetes cannot
penetrate the skin of the dancers, or the bullets hurt any of the members of what
is obviously a secret society.
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Nkerebe
Nkerebe (looking for husband) is another women dance, performed once a year when
young girls at the age of puberty prepare to perform the Mboppo ceremony.
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Asian Mbre Iban
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Ndok Ufok Ebe
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Ebre
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Asian Mbre Iban are dances performed by maidens who wish to inform unmarried men
of the community how beautiful and eligible they are. Other women dances include
Akan, Asamba and Uwok which is performed in the villages occasionally.
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The Ndok Ufok Ebe (means maltreatment in the hands of a husband) is another women
dance to express their grievances over maltreatment of women by their husbands.
The dance is performed once a year. It is accompanied by songs telling the community
about their plight, often, it involve going topless to the market place.
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There is also the Ebre society women dance performed yearly during harvesting of
new yam. During this occasion, women dance to the market place and neighbouring
villages. The dance is not only meant to entertain but as well as deliberate protest
against what is regarded as male chauvinism, which is reflected in the vulgarity
of some of the song texts.
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Copyright © 2012 Government of Akwa Ibom State |
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