Traditional Calabar Masquerade Costumes: Design Elements and Cultural Symbolism

Masquerade traditions in Calabar, Cross River State, represent some of Nigeria's most visually complex and symbolically rich performance art forms, with costume design serving as the primary visual vehicle through which spiritual, social, and aesthetic meanings are communicated to audiences. This study investigates the design elements and cultural symbolism embedded in the costumes of selected masquerade traditions in Calabar, focusing on the Ekpe, Ndem, and Ekpo masquerades. A qualitative research design is employed, combining structured observation of masquerade performances with in-depth interviews conducted with 20 masquerade custodians, costume makers, and cultural scholars. Photographic documentation of costume components including headdresses, body coverings, colour arrangements, and material choices is undertaken during festival seasons. The theoretical framework draws on the anthropology of masquerade, material culture studies, and the semiotics of ritual performance, engaging with recent scholarship on the performative body in African visual traditions. The South South geopolitical context of Cross River State provides a culturally rich setting for examining masquerade costume as an intersection of artistic skill, indigenous knowledge, and community governance. The study examines how costume designs encode clan identity, spiritual hierarchy, and gender roles, and whether contemporary commercial performance contexts have altered the symbolic integrity of the costumes. Findings are intended for the Cross River State cultural institutions, the National Troupe of Nigeria, and researchers in African performance art and material culture studies. Keywords: masquerade, Calabar, costume design, cultural symbolism, Cross River State