0.2.4 Case study

Miller and Òkôn recorded, transcribed, and interpreted dozens of proprietary songs of the Ékpè “leopard” initiation society in southeast Nigeria, performed in Èfịk, the main lingua franca of the region. During the research, they realized that many singers are unable to parse the literal content of their own texts, but that does not undermine the impact of the ritual performance. This is similar to experiences in transatlantic communities of Nigerian heritage in Cuba, and we conclude that this parallelism between West Africa and the Caribbean can help explain the impressive resilience and vitality of the leopard society across countless languages.