ABSTRACT
As participants in the adult performances, the boys grow up and wear adult masks and stage more elaborate performances, as is the case with Ojija and other children's masking rituals among the Yoruba. The common denominators are the name Ojija, the motifs on the carvings, which include a woman carrying a baby on its back, and the fact that both performances are by children, albeit of different gender. In Igbole, Ojija is part of the annual Elefon festival that takes place during late February or early March, just before the rains. In complete contrast to the Ojija performance in Igbole, the principal actors in Ire are girls rather than boys, and the face of the carrier of the Ojija sculpture is not concealed. Among the Ekiti and Igbomina of northeast Yorubaland, participants in Epa, Elefon, and other masking performances include small boys of eighteen months to as many years.
