Otobo

Otobo is among the most celebrated of the Kalabari water-people, a spirit conceived as part man and part hippopotamus, the great river-horse of the Delta creeks. In masquerade song he is hailed as the beast who holds up even the flowing tide, an image of overwhelming force. His is a fierce and dangerous play: the masker charges through the dancing ground and may injure others, his cap-crest fusing human and hippopotamus features and his display sometimes ringed with palm stalks and monkey skulls. As one of the owuamapu he embodies the wild power of the waters that the Ekine society draws into the town for his festival.

Parentage

• parent: TamunoRobin Horton, 'The Kalabari World-View,' Africa 32:3 (1962), pp. 197-220. (secondary)

Domains

• water and rivers
• wild beasts and strength

Powers

• holds back even the flowing tide
• charges fiercely through the masquerade ground

Relations

• parent: TamunoRobin Horton, 'The Kalabari World-View,' Africa 32:3 (1962), pp. 197-220. (secondary)
• companion: AdumuRobin Horton, 'The Kalabari Ekine Society,' Africa 33:2 (1963), pp. 94-114. (secondary)
• companion: IgboRobin Horton, 'The Kalabari Ekine Society,' Africa 33:2 (1963), pp. 94-114. (secondary)
• companion: EkinebaRobin Horton, 'The Kalabari Ekine Society,' Africa 33:2 (1963), pp. 94-114. (secondary)

Sources

• Otobo is a Kalabari water-spirit conceived as part man and part hippopotamus, a fierce masquerade addressed as the beast who holds up even the flowing tide.: Robin Horton, 'The Kalabari Ekine Society,' Africa 33:2 (1963), pp. 94-114. (secondary); 'Spirits in Steel: The Art of the Kalabari Masquerade' (exhibition documentation, American Museum of Natural History). (secondary)