"Ekpo" was a men's society that was widespread far beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Benin, for example also among the Ibibio in the border area to today's Cameroon. The tradition of wooden masks such as this antelope mask "Azigho" may also have come from there. League members wore them in front of their faces, for which the fastening holes around their rim served. They danced with it through the villages to purify them spiritually. In this way, they also protected the village from diseases that could be caused by witches, but also by neglecting the altars to gods and ancestors or by offending the powerful Ekpo spirit being. Thus, these masks do not belong to a courtly urban culture, but to a village culture that formed an important political counterweight to royal power in the countryside. Accordingly, these masks were not carved in professional guilds, but by peasants as part-time specialists. Text: Dietmar Neitzke.