TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND FESTIVALS: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
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It is customary in the world/Nigeria today to point to Africa/Annang whenever
traditional institutions and festivals are mentioned as if Christmas and Easter are not festivals which are being "lubricated" and protected by the Christian science institutions. This ethnocentric and Xenophobic approach by bourgeois academics, potray the African/ Annang traditional institutions like (i) the "Ekpo"(ii)"£kong" (iii)"Abang" (iv) "Mbogo"' and (v) "Nko" as primitive,
fetish and paganic while all the festivals organised by Christiandom are eulogiscd and recommended for the people of the "Dark continent"' Africa.
The paper argues essentially that since there are so many traditional institutions like the British monarchy~ that of the Dannish pcople, Christian
and Muslim festivals which are respected by all and sundry, !hat of lhe Africans in general and the Annang in particular, should also be nurtured,respected and encouraged to grow so that the main tenets could be exported to
Europe via seminars, publications and cultural exchanges.
It is the writer's conviction that once the Annang people work religiously hard and make others to believe in the above trajectories, their language, traditional institutions, festivals, literature and culture would be
protected for posteriiy by the members of the "Ekpo'' traditional institution and "exported" to Europe by the elites.
The paper concludes that while the Annang traditional institutions and festivals are among the best in the worl~ the re-documentation, protection and
re-education of Lhe world about their rich traditional institutions and festivals would be the best legacy the elites can bequeath to the Annang Nation.
Keywords
BL Religion