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Egwu Ekpili is a highly dynamic and symbolic Igbo folk music that responds to social and political tensions in Igbo land in particular, and Nigeria in general. It deploys conventional and conceptual metaphors to articulate salient Igbo identities and ideologies, as well as represent or critique political power structures and relations. Hitherto, studies on Igbo folk music have examined performance styles, compositions, and aesthetic and utilitarian values from the ethnomusicological and literary (socio-political satire) perspectives, with little attention to the role of metaphor as a tool for representing socio-political and cultural realities in the Igbo society – whereas Egwu Ekpili is replete with metaphorical expressions, perceived to be critical to the full understanding of this unique Igbo folk music genre. From a critical metaphor perspective, this study examines the strategic deployment of metaphor in representing identities and …