By JAPHET ALAKAM

In this  21st century when western influence has led to the death of many African cultures, there are still some tribes that are still retaining their cultural heritage. One of such tribes is the Manya Krobo of Krobe Odumase, a small glass bead making community in the Eastern region of Ghana.

This community despite the influence of western culture still holds the Dipo Puberty Rites Festival, a festival where adolescent girls are engaged in a series of customary rites to initiate them into womanhood.

Dipo is similar to the Ovia-Osese festival of the Ogoni people and the fattening room culture amongst the Ibibio people of Nigeria. The Dipo-yi undergo a series of rituals, tests and tasks designed to confirm their chastity; successful completion of which is a per-requisite for a woman to be considered suitable for marriage and motherhood by the community.

During the 2012 Dipo festival held in Ghana, Indira E. Echeruo, a social documentary photographer from Ghana whose primary photographic interests are in chronicling cultures and in portraiture captured some stunning images in black and white of what can be described as a rich and intricate culture of the people.

*Indira Echeruo explaining some the works to Newton Jibunoh during the exhibition

And as a way of bringing the festival to the public, the artist organised an exhibition tagged Portraits from the Making of a Woman, a photo-on-canvas exhibition of a selection of portraits taken during the 2012 Dipo Puberty Rites Festival.

This series of photographs was displayed at the National Museum, Barnes Road, Accra from 2nd to 8th December 2012 and was opened at Didi Museum, Lagos from 15th to 22nd December 2012.

The exhibition which is her second solo exhibition and her first to open in Nigeria featured about 30 images in black and white. It was declared open by Newton Jibunoh.

Commenting about the exhibition, Indira who confessed that she received her basic photography training in a traditional darkroom and only worked with black and white film before she started shooting digital in 2009 said that the works are in black and white because “shooting black and white offered more flexible options for contrast which is great for covering wax prints and other multi-coloured items like the glass beads which feature prominently in the Dipo festival”.

On the choice of Nigeria, Indira who considers Nigeria her second home stated that, “bringing the exhibition to Nigeria has definitely increased the exposure my photography has received. In addition, showing here has encouraged dialogue centred on the meaning and relevance of my work to the Nigerian community”.

Speaking at the event, Newton Jibunoh, the founder of Didi Museum described the exhibition as an inter tribal exposition that brings out to a larger public here in Nigeria, a part of Ghana that is working very hard to retain their cultural heritage and the various traditional festivals.