context1: The society combines a kind of freemasonry with political and lawenforcing aims. For instance any member wronged in an Ekpe district, that is one dominated by the society, has only to address an Ekpe-man or beat the Ekpe <strong>drum</strong> in the Ekpe-house, or blow Ekpe as it is called, i.e. sound the Ekpe <strong>horn</strong>, before the hut of the wrong-doer, and the whole machinery of the society is put in force to see justice done.
context2: The notion of march music began to be borrowed from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. The Ottomans were believed to have introduced the first military bands in the thirteenth century, called mehter or Janissary bands. The music is characterized by an often shrill sound combining bass <strong>drums</strong>, <strong>horns</strong> (boru), bells, the triangle and cymbals (zil) and several other traditional instruments.