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THE SATIRIC CHANTS OF ATUMMA AS A VERITABLE MEANS OF SOCIETAL 

REFORMATION 

 

Dr. Uche Nnyagu 

Department of English Language and Literature, 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka 

eu.nnyagu.unizik.edu.ng 

& 

Dr. Ngozi G. Adunchezor 

Department of English  

Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe 

 

Abstract  

Almost all the towns in Njikoka have Atumma masquerades. Njikoka is a local government 

area in Anambra State, south central Nigeria. The towns that make up the local government 

area include Abagana, Enugwu-Agidi, Nawfia, Nimo, and Abba with the headquarters at 

Abagana. In Dunufokia, a neighbouring Local Government Area, there is Atumma Ogufoluchi 

of Ukpo. Atumma Ugonabo of Abagana, Atumma Ogufoluchi of Ukpo and Atumma Ugonano 

from Abba are the most popular groups in the area. The three towns with Ukpo from different 

local government areas, are very close to each other. As sister towns, they share similar 

traditions hence they have similar masquerades. Atumma masquerades, when they perform, 

men, women and children gather to be entertained. They are known not just for their wonderful 

performances but for their melodious chants. Some of their chants are in form of panegyrics, 

elegy or satire. They perform both in the daytime and at night and they draw their inspiration 

mostly from what happens around the society. In their chants, they attack the ills of individuals 

with the view of correcting impression. In some other cases, they ridicule. In this paper, one 

satiric chant from each of the masquerades is analyze dusing the sociological approach with 

the aim to X-ray the affinity of the chants with literary satires.  

Keywords: Atumma, chants, satire, performance, society 

 

Introduction  

The term poetry, according to Baldick in Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, is 

language sung, chanted, spoken, or written. This entails that poetry must not only be written, it 

can be rendered orally. To Agnes Stein in her The Uses of Poetry, it is the incantations of 

magic, the chants of ritual, the exhortations to steadfastness and bravery. She is of the opinion 

that poetry is not esoteric to the illiterates; it is for both the literate and the illiterates alike. 

Before the advent of printing, poetry has been. This is why Stein writes that poetry is used 

communally by primitive man for survival (6). In Africa, poetry is indispensable for in virtually 

every social and traditional occasions, poetry is performed.  

 

Poetry is one of the major genres of literature believed to be as old as man. Among the three 

genres of literature, poetry is one of the earliest. As William Flint Thrall and Addison Hibbard 

put it in their A Handbook to Literature, the origin of poetic expression is concealed in the dim 

past of man. They have made it vivid that no literary historian will presume to point out the 

earliest beginnings of poetry. According to Uche Nnyagu in Literature and Literate, no literary 

historian has been able to point out the age of poetry and among all the scholars who attempted 

the definition of poetry, each has a different view about it. Nnyagu goes further to state that 

etymologically, poetry came into existence when a tribe or a people experienced some perilous 

moments and they chronicled their experiences, preserved them in dance and sing (74). In 

Africa, the etymology of poetry is unknown. Critics have said a lot about African poetry, but 



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115         Nnyagu & Adunchezor 

none has been able to say authoritatively, the origin of African poetry. According to Joseph A. 

Ushie of the University of Uyo, English Department, “Modern written African poetry has a 

double heritage – pre-colonial and western. As in most post-colonial situations, the tilt of our 

writing should be more towards the pre-colonial African literary heritage as manifested in the 

song, dirge, folktale, elegy, panegyric or riddle (2). In his own contribution, Akporobaro in 

Introduction to African Oral Literature, affirms that oral poetry has no known origin in all 

societies of the world. He maintains that research into the oral tradition of various societies 

does show that this particular poetic form is not only a genre of the poetic tradition of early 

Greece or Europeans; it is also a very dominant form of poetry in nearly all traditional societies. 

He clearly puts it in his own words that, “In particular, it features most prominently in the oral 

literatures of all African rural societies in which song and poetry mingle in a creative alliance” 

(227). In consolidation, www.Wikipedia discloses that African poetry has no known origin 

other than that it encompasses the wide variety of traditions arising from Africa’s 55 countries 

and from evolving trends within different literary genres.  

The African had different types of poetry used in various occasions in the pre-colonial era. The 

poems were collectively composed and performed in particular occasions; in childbirth, 

particular songs are composed and rendered and at funeral, songs apt for the occasion are 

communally composed and performed.  

 

Masquerading is part of the tradition of the Igbo. G. T. Basden in his Among the Ibos of Nigeria, 

confirms this when he says that “The ceremony of making “maw” (juju) prevails throughout 

the Ibo country (116b). According to him, men dress themselves in wield costumes covering 

every part of their body and disguise their voices by means of a small instrument in their mouth. 

He discloses that the masked men represent spirits. These spirits are accorded some respect as 

they are believed to have come as visitors from the world beyond to perform certain tasks. 

During funerals, masquerades perform to entertain the audience. The members of the audience 

watch and listen to the chants of the Atumma masquerades which are usually hilarious and as 

the audience watch and listen to them, the mourners tend to forget the perils associated with 

the loss of their beloved relations. As the masquerades perform on stage, they speak against 

social ills without fear. What ordinarily, human beings would dread to say for fear of 

incarceration, would be said by the masquerades and people would laugh and the concerned 

would tend to take corrections. This is one major feature of satire seen in the chants.  

 

Theoretical Framework  

Sociological Approach is believed to be the most appropriate literary theory for the paper. 

Sociological criticism is defined as criticism that focuses on the social context that the literature 

is created in; it analyzes social issues and uses the literature as social commentary. Ann B. 

Dobie, in Theory into Practice: an Introduction to Literary Criticism, disclosed that the French 

critic, Hippolyte Taine was one of the earliest sociological theorists and that he listed three 

major factors he believed to determine a work of art to include: race, milleu and moment. By 

race, Taine refereed to national characteristics typically found in works of art produced by the 

creative artists of a given country. Race, Taine believed to mean culture and by milleu, he 

meant environment and by moment, he meant personal influence. Sociological approach, 

therefore, prescribes that literature is an expression of society for it originates in society. This 

approach, while focusing on the relationship between literature and society, maintains that 

literature is a microcosm of the macrocosm. For this reason, the researchers believe that the 

approach is most appropriate theory for this paper.  

 

 

 



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Diction and Poetry  

Poetry is not just chanted for the sake of it; it performs a +-lot of functions. In Africa, poetry is 

chanted in different occasions for different reasons. During funerals, funeral songs are 

performed. In some other occasions, masquerades perform funeral poetry to entertain the 

audience as well as use their poems to console the mourners. During marriage rites, poems are 

performed, at childbirth, peculiar poems are performed and in some other traditional occasions 

like ofalla and title taking, particular poems are performed. In many occasions, the performers 

of the poems compose their poems based on what they witness at the moment. For whatever 

occasion, poetry uses words well chosen as an indispensable tool to pass information. Poets 

use words of their poems to evoke a feeling in the audience. Agnes Stein, in her The Uses of 

Poetry, is of the view that the poet or painter evokes in his audience, a familiar feeling they 

know, a lost feeling they may recapture, or a strange feeling trying for recognition (3). It is 

imperative at this point, to state that William Wordsworth, a romantic critic has earlier 

emphasized that poetry is all about feelings when he describes poetry as a spontaneous 

overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. Good poetry uses emotive language 

and when it is rendered on stage, the emotion of the audience is purgated. According to Stein, 

‘man, responding to some emotional stimulus, whether of pain, fear, grief, or joy, was 

beginning to speak. Later, these same vocal chords were to produce “song”– a wedding of 

words and music in a ritualized expression (6).  

 

Poetry tells stories. According to Agnes Stein, one of the major functions of poetry is to tell a 

story (34). It is a fact well acknowledged that a poet or composer of any poem has information 

he or she aims to pass across using the poem. As the poem is performed, the story of the poem 

is told. Stein makes it vivid that stories had always been so told or sung because the devices of 

meter and rhyme served as an aid to memory as well as quickly catching the ear of an audience.  

It is the function of poetry to entertain as well as instruct. This cannot be possible without 

emotive words. When a poem is rendered with the use of percussions, it is enjoyed by the 

audience. It therefore, becomes futile if after a poem is rendered, the message of the poem is 

eluded. Perrine, Laurence is aware of this when in his Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 

he wonders why one would waste one’s time listening to poetry when all it can offer is only 

pleasure (3). He believes that any poem that offers to the audience pleasure without educating 

him or her is not worth taking one's time. Good poem needs to tell stories through which life 

can be effected. Atumma chants entertain as they educate the audience.  

 

Atumma Chants as Poetry  

Atumma chant is a variety of poetry known as lyric. Lyric, according to Baldick, is any fairy 

short poem expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker. He says 

that lyric can be accompanied with musical instruments such as as lyre and could be a choral 

lyre sung by a group. According to William Flint Thrall and Hibbard, Addison, it is a brief 

subjective poem strongly marked by imagination, melody, and emotion and creating a single, 

unified impression. This shows that lyric is the expression of the emotion of a singer 

accompanied by musical instruments as in the case of Atumma chants. Atumma sings his 

poems and members of his group who comprise young men beat the percussions as well as 

respond by singing the refrain where necessary. This is in line with Thrall and Addison's view 

that in lyric, when a single singer sings expressing his emotions, the refrains (choruses) are 

rendered by the group. In consolidation, Akporobaro F. B. O. in his Introduction to African 

Oral Literature, affirms that this form of poem is an example of lyric. He calls it poetic-song 

or a song-poem which he says is an expression of a personal mood or thoughts sung simply or 

to the accompaniment of musical instruments such as guitar, koras, drum, rattle, bottles or 



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knocking of sticks. Atumma chants are rhythmical, melodic, and evocative. These, Akporobaro 

believes are features of the lyric poetry.  

 

Almost all the Atumma chants are performed with the members of the audience responding by 

singing of the chorus. "Onye Olu Oyibo" by Atumma Ugonabo, "Obi Danda" by Atumma 

Ugonano and so many others are chanted with the accompaniment of the musical instruments 

like udu, ekwe, ogene, and drums. In very rare occasions, some are rendered as a solo where 

the masquerades perform the solo with no chorus from the group members. The chant "Ife na 

eme n'uwa" by Atumma Ugonano, though very brief, is chanted with no refrains by the 

members however, not without the accompaniment of the traditional musical instruments. This 

entails that some of Atumma chants, as lyric poems, can be rendered with or without chorus. 

In the words of Akporobaro, "The song poem may be performed solo or by a group" (228). In 

terms of its importance, Akporobaro has this to say,  

.... the song poem has a very wide range of manifestation and 

contexts. It features in all aspects of African life and is therefore 

known in terms of the social occasions they are associated with. 

These include work songs, war songs, rowing songs, drinking 

songs, rite of passage songs, circumcision songs, hunting songs, 

etc (228) 

 

Atumma chants permeate all activities of life in Igbo belief as according to Akporobaro "poetry 

permeates all activities of life in the African world.” 

 

Atumma Chants as Satire  

Most of the chants of Atumma Ugonabo are satires criticizing the ills going on in the society. 

Atumma Ugonabo believes that unless a particular ill is unveiled, it would continue. That is 

why he has decided to incorporate satire in his chants. The term “satire” according to William 

Flint Thrall and Addison Hibbard, is a literary manner which blends a critical attitude with 

humor and wit to the end that human institutions may be improved. To Abram, M. H., it is "the 

literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward 

it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation" (284 - 285).  

 

The essence of satire is not just to ridicule; satire aims to correct impression using laughter as 

the weapon. Thrall and Hibbard made it vivid when they emphasize that the true satirist is 

conscious of the frailty of institutions of man's devising and attempts through laughter not so 

much to tear them down as to inspire a remodeling. They believe that true satire must use 

laughter as a weapon to correct impression. To them, satire should not just attack an individual 

without any positive aim of using the attack for corrective purpose. They emphasize that if the 

critic simply abuses, he is writing invective and if he is personal and splendid, he is writing 

sarcasm and when he is sad and morose over the state of society, he is writing irony or mere 

gloom. The chants of Atumma evoke laughter from the audience who laugh the ills to scorn.  

 

Satiric Strictures in the Chants of Atumma Ugonabo  

In his "Onye Olu Oyibo," Atumma Ugonabo uses laughter to criticize a lot of abnormalities in 

the society. As satire, he never criticizes without proffering solutions. He ridicules the attitudes 

of some ladies who use their cunningness and avariciousness to milk men dry. Atumma 

Ugonabo sees such an act as bad and condemnable. He wonders why some women who know 

that they never loved a man would pretend to love him just to use cunningness to rub him of 

his riches. In his chants, he uses Theresa, Nwakaego and Oby to represent all the women who 

live such lifestyle. Theresa, he says, gives a young man the illusion that she loves him. Being 



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sceptical about the love, the young man asks her to be because he doesn't want heartbreak. 

Theresa, bearing in mind to jilt him and leave him heartbroken, hides her real self; she gives 

him the impression that she loves him. She makes him to spend so profusely on her, buying for 

her all that she desires. Atumma Ugonabo uses satiric chants to present a true picture of most 

ladies in our contemporary society who are only after what they will gain from a man. He says 

in a humorous manner that the young man who actually, isn't a neophyte about the 

machinations of some young women in the society, grants Theresa's request by buying for her 

the full chicken, sweet, chewing gum and many other things that she had requested. In order to 

make her happy, he helps her to cut the delicious roasted chicken into sizable chunks. She eats 

the chicken, drinks and takes the sweets and chewing gums with delight even though she knows 

she never loved him. When she has eaten everything, Atumma Ugonabo says she uses esoteric 

language to confuse her host as to leave him heartbroken. He makes it clear in the beginning 

that the young man had sensed her plan and so, he had warned her to go because he isn't very 

rich that he can easily forget whatever he would spend for her. In the same vein, Nwakego and 

Oby use the same tricks on their own respective men. In condemning this poor attitudes of 

some women, Atumma Ugonabo presents a vivid picture of how the avaricious young women 

are disappointed as they are forced into sex as a way of paying for what they had eaten. The 

chorus of the members of the group "Yes, that which you did makes me glad" makes young 

women nursing the intention to cheat on men to take corrections. 

 

Atumma Ugonabo condemns laziness on the part of Igbo men. Igbo men are not lazy. This, 

Achebe vivified in his novel, Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo is praised and honored for being 

hardworking. Okonkwo is seen as a typical Igbo man; in typical Igbo society, a man is known 

not for his handsomeness but for his exploits. Okonkwo commands respect among his people 

but Unoka, his father is derided for his laziness. He is not seen as an example of the true Igbo 

man hence he has no title. Laziness is believed to lead to certain crimes for idle mind, they say, 

is the devil's workshop. Atumma Ugonabo says that Nwafor Nwaibeke becomes a thief as a 

result of his laziness. He ridicules Nwafor Nwaibeke who stands for the totality of other young 

Igbo men who indulge in ill acts. He puts it humorously that anybody visited by Nwafor 

Nwaibeke should quickly ask him to leave because if he is allowed to stay, either a goat or a 

fowl would get lost. By this, Ugonabo has said it all that thieves are avoided like pariah and so 

that young men should never dream of becoming one.  

 

In the same chants, Atumma Ugonabo condemns the attitudes some married women who 

disrespect their husbands. What usually causes problems in homes according to Ugonabo, is 

the attitudes of some women who are too garrulous. Women in traditional African society, are 

to be under their husbands, they are not to talk while their husbands are talking for such act 

aggravates men. A virtuous woman does not exchange words with her husband. Atumma 

Ugonabo laments this poor attitude when in his chants, he says that ekwulekwu umunwanyi 

akarigo m. This literally means that the garrulousness of women is becoming a problem. He 

makes it very clear that women who talk a lot scare their husbands away. In our society today, 

some men spend most of their time in the bar after their day work. Most of the men are not in 

the bar because they have penchant for that but just to avoid their garrulous wives. As a way 

of ensuring that the ill seizes to continue, Atumma Ugonabo reminds women that they suffer 

more in the case of broken home. A woman who listens to the chants, needs no other advice 

from anyone to learn to tame her tongue. That is the advice of Atumma Ugonabo to women.  

 

Satire in Atumma Ogufoluchi's "Omelida" 

Atumma Ogufoluchi is that of Ukpo. Like the others, he has melodious voice. He looks very 

much like Atumma Ugonabo and Atumma Ugonano except for the absence of eagle feathers 



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on his head. Atumma Ugonabo is so called because his forehead is adored with two eagle 

feathers. As his name implies, Atumma Ugonano has his forehead adored with four eagle 

feathers. Atumma Ogufoluchi prefers not to have any feathers on his own head. Like his 

contemporaries, Atumma Ogufoluchi believes that satiric chant is a veritable tool for correcting 

impressions. He has, like the others, profusely ridiculed societal ills he witnessed in his society. 

He condemns in its entirety, the attitudes of some medicine men who are everywhere in the 

society and who specialize in abetting crimes in the society. These medicine men, he says, 

concoct bad charms which their diabolical clients use to cause mishaps in the society. He 

wonders why the medicine men should not concentrate in doing something good with their 

powers. As he puts it, such sardonic medicine men's preoccupation is producing charms that 

cause the yams and the cocoyams in the farmers' farms to die. He wonders what such diabolic 

medicine men benefit when they cause perils to fellow humans. As it is the duty of satire to 

proffer solutions, Ogufoluchi quickly chronicles the dangers of such devilish charms to the 

masses including the medicine man himself and suggests for change of attitude when he advises 

medicine men to specialize in such medicines that would rather unite and herald progress.  

 

He ridicules Nigerian police and army who he says are corrupt. Their corruption endears them 

to shoot innocent people sporadically. According to him, "Fa buru egbe, fa emebe ka o tego o 

bidoro sebe". Ogufoluchi so aptly presents a true picture of what happens in the contemporary 

Nigerian society where the army and police leave their civic responsibility which is to maintain 

law and order as well as to ensure adequate security and have decided to hunt the people they 

are meant to protect. Ogufoluchi vividly presents the ugly activities of the security agents in 

such a way that even the unwary would understand and laugh the ills to scorn for correction to 

take place.  

He equally uses laughter as a weapon to condemn high rate of prostitution among women. As 

a satiric tool, Ogufoluchi uses exaggeration in condemning this decadence. It is exaggeration 

toassert that all women are the same when it comes to prostitution as Ogufoluchi alleges. Albeit 

it is fallacious to assert that all women indulge in prostitution, the informed understands that it 

is only exaggeration that he has applied in line with Uche Ogbuagu's submission that when 

nine mad people are led by only one sane person, the viewers would not be wrong to say that 

ten mad men have walked past. The use of the exaggeration is basically for the audience to 

understand that the situation is getting out of hand for correction to be possible. He makes it 

vivid that the salacious women are aware that what they do is bad and that is why they go 

visiting their lovers only in the dead of the night. This is what Ogufoluchi means when he says 

that" Ndeeli a dago, nwanyi a baa n'obi". Obi, in Igbo, denotes the hut of a man. In traditional 

Igbo society, a full fledged Igbo man builds huts for his wife(ves) and then has his own hut or 

obi. It is at his obi that he welcomes his guests and he sleeps there too. This is the place that 

Atumma Ogufoluchi alleges that the lecherous Igbo men take their lovers who visit them late 

at night.  

 

Satire in Atumma Ugonano's "Ife Di Egwu" 

Atumma Ugonano believes that he has been given license to speak his mind without fear of 

anything. According to him, “Our people gave me the license to speak my mind.” He believes 

that as masquerade, the onus is on him to point at societal ills, condemn both the ills and the 

perpetrators for corrections to take place. In his chants, he believes that they are for 

entertainment and for criticism. As satire, Atumma Ugonano uses laughter as a weapon of 

criticism. Almost all his chants are satiric. In his "Atumma Kwube," he emphasizes that he has 

the license to speak without fear. This belief endears him to criticize even the most powerful. 

In this chant, like Atumma Ugonabo, he condemns the attitudes of some women who cunningly 

try to siphon men of their wealth. Ugonano laments that in our society today, a woman knows 



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full well that she never loved a particular man but for greed, she pretends to love him because 

of whatever she will benefit from him. He uses Amoge of Ukpo to represent all women in that 

category. One thing peculiar with this Atumma, as he has said, is that he nurses no fear in 

attacking whoever he wants to attack. The quest for knowledge about Atumma took the 

researchers to the towns of the masquerades for interview. In Ukpo, the researchers were told 

that Amoge wasn’t a fictional character, she lived and in fact, was alive as of the time Atumma 

sang about her. The villagers do not see anything wrong about Atumma using his chants to 

deride. They believe that Atumma is doing so good a job for them because a lot of people 

known for one ill or the other aspire to do good so that Atumma would not criticize them in his 

chants. Ukpo is a neighbouring town to Abba. The decision of Ugonabo to use identifiable 

location isn't an aberration. Baldick describes the type of satire that uses this method as direct 

or formal satire. He says that this type of satire directly addresses the reader.  

 

Charlatanism among medicine men is fiercely condemned in this chant. Like Ugonabo has 

said, these category of medicine men who are everywhere in the society, charge exorbitant 

prices. They use their sugar coated tongues to deceive their unwary prospective clients into 

paying the huge amounts for solution to one problem or the other. It is pathetic that after the 

clients have paid, the medicine men would be unable to proffer solution to the problems. 

Ugonano alleges that why the medicines are impotent is because the medicine men have 

charged amount higher than the medicine. To him, unless medicine men go back to the status 

quo, collecting only a token to prepare medicine against any problem, they would continue to 

be disappointed as their antidotes would always remain impotent.  

 

He ridicules young married women who still keep boyfriends outside their marital homes. This 

act, Atumma Ugonano sees as a taboo and so, he fiercely condemns it. He calls the women 

who indulge in such ignominious act umu agbala sugar mummy, ndi o no na di acho di. 

Atumma Ugonano believes that such acts puts families in jeopardy and so, he believes that 

condemning the act in his chants would be useful in bringing the act to a halt. Humorously, he 

says that the unfaithful wives deprive young spinsters the opportunity to get hooked because 

themen who would have proposed them would not because they enjoy cheap sex from the sugar 

mummies.  

Atumma does not pat the lecherous men at the back. He sees them as partners in crime. Such 

men, he presents them as never-do-wells in the society. Likein the literary satire, Atumma uses 

symbols as satiric tool. In his chants, he uses Okoye Nwejiofo to symbolize all lecherous men 

in the society. He is never subtle in his criticism as he obviously seems to believe that satire 

must be biting for the attacked needs to feel the pains for corrections to be taken. He says that 

Okoye Nwejiofo prefers to chase after women while his contemporaries are busy working to 

improve life. He puts it humorously that Okoye Nwejiofo would never be useful to himself 

because "ife di na ngada a na atoka ya.  

 

In Igbo society, a man is expected to be hardworking because laziness is abhorrent in the 

society. This vivifies why in the traditional Igbo society, able bodied men and women are not 

expected to be idle in the daytime; tales are not told in the daytime because at this hour, the 

young men and women should be in their various workplaces. Okoye Nwejiofo is therefore, 

used by Atumma Ugonano to show how best a young Igbo man should not be.  

 

He directs his criticism to warring communities. He fails to understand why sister communities 

should fight when they should rather come together to fight for mutual development. Atumma 

Ugonano is of the view that any community devoid of peace remains static because 

development can only be possible when there is peaceful coexistence among people of the 



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community. He blames Aguleri and Umuleri for being in perpetual war. Atumma Ugonano 

believes that everything in the world is futile and so, he fails to understand why sane people 

would kill themselves over nothing. As a way of correcting impression, Atumma Ugonano 

advises the two sister communities to drop their arms and embrace peace which is the only best 

means of ensuring progress.  

 

Atumma Ugonano is aware of the fact that charlatanism is the order of the day in many 

churches in the society. Church is now seen as a lucrative business and so many people self 

ordained themselves to get the docile members siphoned. Wole Soyinka witnessed this too and 

he criticizes fake prophets who are everywhere in the society perpetuating their ills. In different 

churches in the society, what the pastors preach these days is wealth and the church which is 

supposed to help in reforming the society rather contributes in its decay. Atumma Ugonano 

vividly X-rays this when he says that the church only recognizes the wealthy. He laments that 

the poor in the church are treated with contempt because their financial contributions in the 

church are meagre. It appalls him that the church which is supposed to help the poor among 

them rather exploits them. Authoritatively, many pastors in the contemporary Nigerian society 

own private jets bought with the tithes of the poor congregation. Many of them own private 

primary schools, secondly schools and universities built with the contributions of the poor 

members of the congregation who cannot afford to send their children to the school because of 

the high tuition fees. Atumma puts it humorously that what has scared him from the church is 

the manner riches are worshipped. He asks a pertinent question to consolidate his claims "Unu 

afunugo ebe ogbenye na achi ndi uka?" which literally translates that the church in the society 

today, does not value people but wealth. Atumma Ugonano makes it very clear that church 

cannot help in any way in redeeming the society because church elders are selfish and greedy 

and they no longer preach sanity but wealth. Atumma believes that what will help is, as he has 

left the church, others should do same and embrace our forsaken tradition.  

 

 

Conclusion  

The researchers watched the masquerades perform on stage. The different Atumma 

masquerades have recorded musical albums. The researchers in addition to watching the 

masquerades perform live, equally listened to the recorded chants of the masquerade. They 

have been able to analyze the chants of Atumma Ugonabo of Abagana, Atumma Ugonano of 

Abba and Atumma Ogufoluchi of Ukpo and they have observed that the chants are mainly 

satire and they are indispensable for the reformation of the society. The chants use satiric 

techniques to correct impression. Laughter is used by the masquerades as a tool rather than an 

end. It is observed that Atumma draws his inspiration mainly from what happens around the 

society and their chants are better appreciated when they are watched on stage. When the 

masquerades render their chants, the members of the audience laugh at the foolishness of the 

society criticized by the masquerades. As Atumma Ugonano has pointed out that he has the 

license to speak his mind without fear, the researchers noticed that the masquerades freely, 

without fear, ridicule any erring personality, group or organization. The three masquerades 

understand that the society is degenerated and that it gets worse and worst as days progress 

because of excessive and insatiable yearnings for materialism among the people. In order to 

belong, many people in our society tend to do one ill or the other to become wealthy. Atumma 

masquerades believe that the society cannot be redeemed if the people keep exhibiting the 

Philistine attitudes. They have therefore, decided to use their chants to fiercely condemn the 

social vices with the belief that such would help in sanitizing the society.  

 

 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 8 No. 2, 2021 
 
 

122         Nnyagu & Adunchezor 

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