Egungun is a visible manifestation of the spirits of departed ancestors who periodically revisit the human community for remembrance, celebration, and blessings. It is a unique cultural tradition practiced by the Yoruba of West Africa and their descendants in the African Diaspora, particularly in Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, and the United States. These spirits constantly bless, protect, warn, and punish their earthly relatives depending on how their relatives neglect or honor them.
The appearance of Egungun in a community is invariably accompanied by pomp and pageantry, drumming and dancing, singing and celebration. The ensuing festival goes on for several days and strengthens the bonds that unite families and communities with departed ancestors. The costumes are constructed of disparate fabrics, both locally woven and industrially manufactured, in addition to metal, beads, leather, bones, and potent empowering materials. Today the fabrics chosen are literally the best that money can buy, and include damask, velvet, silk, Indian madras, and printed cotton. These masquerade performances are often accompanied by the swirling of fabrics and colors, augmented by intricate body movements and carefully orchestrated dance steps. At best, Egungun is both a fanciful parade and a concrete manifestation of the acrobatic displays of spirit
Historians and culture experts have argued over the years on the Nupe influence on Yoruba culture, especially with the introduction of Egungun in Yorùbá land. Yorùbá culture had its traditional take off with the Egungun culture . The functional objective of the Egungun in Yorùbá culture is divided into the different parts; ancestral protection, theatrical performance, some were summoned before any Military expeditions in pre-colonial times, as a way of checkmating the excesses of the Oba, and promoting family or societal cultural aesthetic and lastly as a medium of cultural preservation.
The colourful exhibit and fancy dresses outlay of any Egungun in Yorùbá land was borne out of its core genesis and cultural flamboyancy that best describes the beauty of culture, tradition and heritage. It’s bold and fearful outlook creates a persona of God/Ancestors like image on earth. However, no matter how comical and fun looking any Egungun is, one needs to understand the powerful spiritual, cultural relevance and strength they possess, thus making them supernatural beings in their own right. In Yorùbá land, this state of spiritual earns them the appellation Ara Orun kin kin (meaning) Members of the celestial order.
The Physical performance of any Egungun is propelled by the spirits of the Ancestors of that particular Egungun. Thus making the performer and the (Eku), meaning the costumes of the Egungun . Not just mere mortals at the moment of the display, they represent spirits of the dead, Ancestors and gatekeepers that guard the gates of Olodumare. In movement and appearance, the masquerade depicts the presence and power (Àsé) of the Ancestors.
According to Yorùbá oral tradition, Eesa Ogbin Ologbojo, the eponymous Ancestors of Yorùbá carvers was the first masked performer in the court of the Alaafin of Oyo. The first costume consisted of several layers of sash, or ooja, borrowed or appropriated from women- hence the tradition of intricate assemblages of colorful fabrics by any Egungun.
The Alapini seats as the head in the hierarchy of the Egungun fold. Performers are always male members of the Egungun cult. Slaves, the uninitiated and ill-mannered people are forbidden. Women do not dance around or in front the Egungun, but their chant and songs are essential to the melodramatic success of the festival.
Different Egungun in Yorùbá land perform different duties, and their function varies from the origin of their cult to the other. There is technically an Egungun for every age grade, association, worship of deities, artisan association, and cultural professionals in Yorùbá land.
There is the Alapansanpa Egun, used in the past to fight and won many wars in and outside Ibadan. This masquerade is renowned and his importance to Ibadan cannot be overemphasised. He comes out once a year (in June), and must go to the Olubadan’s palace where he whips the Olubadan with his whip three times after which the Monarch blesses him with gifts and other items. If he does not go to the Olubadan’s Palace, prosperity and peace will cease in the land, meaning the Olubadan is a bad person.
There is also the famous Danafojura (Egungun Oni Mojesin Baba Ibeji) from Oyo Kingdom. This Egungun is fire-resistant –No matter the size of the fire, He cannot be consumed. He has the power to make people unconscious and revive them. He is an ancient and powerful Egun highly feared and respected among his peers, where he is considered as an “ELDER” in the clan. He displays his dance inside a blaze of a huge fire burning. His name “Danafojura” which means, “Set me on fire” is what he says to his handlers the moment he sets out of his coven.
Some Egungun comes out at certain times and season of the year, making it festive periods, some at will, and some unannounced a sign of danger coming into that community or region might trigger this.
Just like the colorful hundreds of fabrics that form the basis of the Egungun costume all glued to the body of the Egun, the significance of the Egungun in Yorùbá cultural set up is to uphold the cultural reliance and tradition of the land using culture an anchor for a progressive Future
However, there are lots of stories about Egungun cult and how it sprouted among the Yoruba. It refers to all types of Yoruba masquerades or masked, costumed figures. Specifically, it refers to the Yoruba masquerades connected with ancestral reverence, or to the ancestors themselves as a collective force.
The singular form for an individual ancestor is Egun or Eegun.
Egungun festival is part of the Yoruba religious system, sometimes referred to as Orisa. It is celebrated as festivals and rituals through the masquerade. An elder from the Egungun family called Alagbaa sometimes presides over the ancestral rites. But priests are the ones in charge of invoking the spirits of the ancestors and bringing them out.
The invocation is done when the worshippers dance, drum, and become possessed by the ancestral spirits, so much that they flog everybody they see with their whips. They believe that using the whip on people can help cleanse the community of wickedness. After this, the priest advises, warns and prays for the spectators and people give them money which evidently results in the priests becoming richer.
Egungun masks are also performed during specific funeral rites, marking the death of important personalities. The festival is common among the Egba, Egbado, Oyo, and other parts of the South-West; and it is held between November and April when there is usually no rainfall. The belief is that the ancestors should not suffer by being drenched by rain.
An ensemble is repaired and refurbished for use year after year with layers of new lappets and amulets added to express remembrance and honour. Through divination, however, an ancestor might request a new costume altogether. The owner and the patron, the priest of divination, the tailor, the herbalist who prepares the packets of medicines, and the entire lineage collaborate in creating the ensemble. Depending on its wealth, a family may own several types of Egungun costumes, which may represent specific or collective ancestors of the lineage.
The Egungun ensemble acts as the medium for the masker’s transformation into his ancestors. An Egungun society is composed of men and women whose lineages have the right to present the masquerade. Men do the masking. Women never wear the costume, although they participate in the chorus that sings the oriki (praise poems), and histories of the families. Elderly women of high title also perform invocations, prayers, and offerings. At annual festivals, each of the numerous lineages is given a separate day to perform. The masker is kept at a distance from the surrounding crowd with the help of attendants dressed in masquerade costumes of different types. After all the Egungun have danced, the ensembles are stored until the next performance.
Vintage Egungun Masquerade costumes were made with high-quality disparate fabrics which were mostly locally woven but evolved over time due to readily available mass-produced fabrics which were considered to facilitate the costume making process. The costumes contain metal, beads, leather, animal skin, bones, and potent empowering materials and are usually colourful, baggy and cover all parts of the figure, leaving no area exposed.
The colourful nature, the baggy appearance, the fanciful nature of dress and the outlay of any Egungun present in Yoruba land was borne out of its core genesis, traditional richness and cultural flamboyancy that best portrays the beauty and liveliness of culture, tradition and heritage. The Egungun figures have a bold and fiery outlook that creates an impression of a “god/ancestors-like image on earth.” No wonder in Yoruba land, their appearance and state of spiritual relevance earn them the title “Ara Orun kin kin” which means: “A Member of the celestial order.”
Today, the fabrics chosen for the festivals are literally of the highest standard and must be the best quality readily available. They include sequins, damask, velvet, Indian madras, silk, printed cotton and linen.
Egungun Masquerade costumes are usually a product of a variety of carefully selected fabrics. The designs and permutations of the fabrics go to show the creativeness of the Yoruba. From exquisite and quality samples of local handwoven Aso Oke (topmost handwoven fabric of the Yoruba) to exotic, high-class fabrics, Egungun costumes are made from local and imported fabrics from different
The selected fabrics represent the best that money can buy and would normally include extra adornments in form of Velvet (Aran), Silk, Damask, Lace, and Cotton. They also usually have a touch of Ankara, otherwise commonly known outside Nigeria as African print. The fabrics would first be arranged into aligning strips or panels of decorated sashes—ooja— similar to those used by mothers in wrapping babies on their backs. More than the aesthetic benefits, the costumes serve to reference the popular and mythic history of Egungun Masquerade, and the old times of collaboration between Eesa Ogbin Ologbojo, who was the eponymous ancestor of Yoruba sculptors, and the queen mother, Erubami Abimbowo, who created the first ensemble at the time of Alaafin Abiodun Adegoriolu (1770–1789).
Every year, the owner of an Egungun masquerade costume adds a piece of new fabric to the layers. The number of levels of cloth worn serves to indicate the number of years a costume has actively performed. The purpose of using expensive clothes, exquisite fabrics and bright, imported paints is to highlight the sumptuousness of the world of the Yoruba ancestor. As a result, you can easily tell the age of a masquerade upon examining the clothes used and by noting the number of layers involved, since it is not unusual for new clothes to be added each year. If a costume has been used for decades, the bottom layer would usually reveal handwoven fabrics such as very old indigo-dyed cloth, whereas the more recent outer layers will mostly be of machine-made cloth, including Velvet and others. Cowrie shells as symbols of wealth are used to frame both sides of the masquerade’s head. They are adorned in horizontal rows, just below the face and descend way down in parallel columns at the front of the costume. The wealth, fame and status of the family, as well as the power of the ancestors, are celebrated with this traditional assemblage of materials.
With each fabric made in eye-pleasing decorative patterns, forms, shapes and colours, the meticulously arranged fabrics and adornments must follow the well-established conventions of times past. This is best described as the conventions that represents the treasured values of Egungun traditions, or asa. Asa is a Yoruba term that represents a conscious attempt “to select, choose, discriminate, or discern” (Yai, 1994) while being well aware of the historical past.
Quite logically, artists-priests-devotees in the past used their oju ona (design consciousness) alongside their oju inu (inner eye or artistic insight and sensibility) as well as laakaye (intuitive knowledge) plus imoju-mora (unusual sensitivity) to make deliberate choices (Abiodun, 1989; Lawal, 1996) in the selection of colours, shapes, patterns, and designs. This dynamic artistic process is a constantly inventive, modern and revitalizing one. The result of the rigorous process is that the cloth panels come in a multiplicity of designs, looks, patterns, hues, tones, shapes, and colours. The result proves to be a curious blend of disparate elements of various materials, fully reflective of the multidimensional vision, insight and power of the departed ancestors. Another intriguing and creative approach to the Egungun costumes are the quilted fabrics forms with multiple layers of both old and new materials, including amuletic pouches, pebbles, gourds, and leather as well as metal adornments believed to be empowering items. By the tradition, to deviate from these well-established models (asa) is tantamount to contravening the widely recognized conventions—a scenario best likened to an outright aberration, one that fits into the mould of nuisance and absurdity, commonly referred to as asakasa.
