Tipos de formación que debe tener un profesional en la educación

Hence, it was a gradual change whereby we started to see costumes used in a realistic mode.

In the traditional times, maidens from rich homes at Awka celebrated the ngba nja ritual.

That is, the fattening room outing for girls from rich homes. During the preparation, the traditional costume and makeup designer who prepared the young maiden for the theatrical performance; kept her in her house. As step to making the celebrant up, the traditional designer scrubbed the celebrant‟s skin with uvie (red cam wood) for some days before the outing day. The uvie illuminates and makes the skin supple and more attractive.

On the day of ngba nja performance proper, the maiden is wrapped with nja (a brass spiral leg band) from her knee through the ankle. Based on Basden‟s account, Lydersay relates that:

These are forged out of solid brass bars by the Awka blacksmiths…[and are]in size from seven to fourteen inches in diameter…Young girls were fitted with smaller sized samples…spiral rings made of…brass. A complete pair called nja… [is] never worn after marriage. (419)

Similarly Aniako maintains that, “It is, however, the period of maidenhood which provides the dramatic focus for body adornment among the Igbo. This is more so because change of status is affected by the considerable use of body adornment.” (334) Nja in Awka signified affluence. The Igba nja celebrant wore jigida coral which reached her thigh. Her skin previously scrubbed with uvie, was then adorned with uli of beautiful motifs. Describing the dress culture of traditional Igbo people, Utoh-Ezeajugh posits that:

The most significant aspect of Igbo dress culture is the intricate body decorations made with Ufie, Uli, Ogalu, Uli Ogbu, Nkasiani and Nzu…Uli body decoration was made on the body for the purpose of enhancing beauty and defining socio-cultural circumstances. (39)

Igbo women traditionally carry their babies on their backs with strips of clothing binding them to their babies and knotted at their chests. Maiden wore mini-wrappers with waist beads. Lyndersay opines that, “…unmarried girls usually wore a one-piece wrapper tied

from the bust, reaching to the knees and or upper calves. A short skirt (mbe n’ ukwu)…was worn as underwear.” (417) Men wore loin clothes that wrapped round their waist and between their legs and then fastened at their backs. These style f clothing was appropriate the harsh elements as well as jobs such as farming, palm-wine tapping and hunting.

Umukoro posits that:

From a broad perspective however, the classification of the Nigerian traditional dress is first and foremost founded on gender lines. That is to say that the male and female dichotomy is usually evoked in the different ethnic collections of dress and accessories belong to the different categories associated with the different Nigerian groups and subgroups. (52)

With the influential of colonialism, Igbo people adapted the Western dress cultures.

The immigrant Europeans gave the indigenes Western clothes as gifts in order to encourage modesty. Thus, modesty was a major reason that propelled the people to wear Western clothes. Before colonialism, married women wore two pieces of wrapper, with the one closest to the skin reaching to the ankle, and the second wrapper reaching to the knees.

These wrappers are worn with a blouse made of the same material. According to Lyndersay, “The imported Dutch printed cloth (abada) was mostly used by women when not wearing locally hand-woven cloth. Special cloth or garments (afe uka) were set aside for wearing to religious services.” (417) With European influence, some Awka men began to wear bante (panty-like clothe with rope in the front to aid adjustment). This style was influenced by the iwa-ogodo (loin clothe) design of the traditional Igbo people.

Basically costumes then were used to indicate wealth, as the wealthy women were identified with odu. Men of prestige wore ichi. Aniako accentuates:

…the ultimate in men‟s body markings which are worn on the forehead, are the prestigious ichi markings which serve as the badge of authority of the wearer, his status symbol…They define his social and political identity and

accord him social visibility…Igbo woman of status would waddle in a pair of heavy metal anklets…as a sign of wealth, prestige and social influence…

(337)

Traditionally, young Igbo men wore lion clothes, older men were dressed in calve-length cotton wrapper gathered and knotted at the belly. Some Igbo clothes were worn to help modify the wearers movements, making him/her move in a dignified way. Thus, giving the wearer a dignified posture and in turn signifying an elevated economic or social status.

Examples of such costumes are the odu of the Onitsha Otu-odu women, the nja of the igba-nja maiden-group of ancient Awka, the igba-nja of the Ine-ezi maiden-group of Anam and the costume of the Ijele masquerade of the Umueri communities of Anambra state. These ornaments were used to symbolize merits, authority and status in society. Hence, we can deduce that the Igbo traditional society has a lot of accessories which Nollywood adopts and uses in character creation.