Egungun masquerader may be defined as the collective spirits of the ancestors who occupy a space in heaven hence they are called Ara Orun (dwellers of heaven). These ancestral spirits are believed to be in constant watch over their survivors on earth. They bless, protect and punish their earthly relatives depending on how their relations neglect or remember them. The ancestral spirits have collective functions that cut across lineage and family loyalty. They collectively protect the community against evil spirit, epidemics, famine, natural disasters, witchcraft and evil doers, ensuring the wellbeing, positively and productivity of the whole community generally.
The spirits of the ancestors could be invoked individually or collectively in need or the graves of the ancestors (Oju Orori), the family shrine (ile run) or the community grave (igbale). That is why when an elder dies, the relatives of the deceased will say ” majokun, majekolo, Ohun ti won ban je lorun niko o ba won je ki oma sun lorun o. bo ju wo awon omo re o, meaning ” Never eat millipedes, never eat earthworms. Eat what they eat in heaven don’t sleep off, take care of those you left behind. The ancestral spirit may be invited to visit the earth physically in masquerade and such masquerades are called Egungun, egun or ara orun (Dwellers of heaven)
The supernatural powers the ancestors have over the community became real as the different Egungun perform their religious, political and social functions.
Egungun appearance reassure the Yoruba of life after death. The coming out of lineage egungun is a source of blessing and pride to the family; it is a time of rededication and intimate association with the ancestors. Also it is a time of festivity entertainment and apprehension of forces of evil and of engendering deep belief in divine guidance and protection.
Political organisation
The political head of egungun is Alapinni; whilst the Alagbaa is saddled with the ritual functions of egungun. The Oje is the new hybridisation of the cult of egungun anybody born into egungun family is called eegunjobi, eegunyemi etc, they can also be called Ojewale, Ojewunmi, Ojetunji etc.
Annual appearance of Egungun and the attendant festivities at Ifewara
Ifewara is located to the Eastern part of Ile-Ife Osun State of Nigeria. It is about six kilometrE from Ife. Its indigenes are into farming, trading and artisanship. They have high esteem for cultural practices. They are very hospitable, generous and altruistic.
At Ifewara land, there are two main categories of Egungun. There are young ones (kunduke, tobolo or abilere) whose costumes are without any headmasks. There are also elder egungun whose costumes include headmasks which are wooden except egungun Onirun (The masquerades whose headmask is made of very long synthetic hair) and egungun Onina (the masquerade whose headmask is burning fire). The most prominent ones are owolewa (money brings beauty), (Obademeji) Igbalode (the vogue).
Egungun festival takes place between August and November every year. Some of them are individual egungun while others are lineage egungun. Egungun ceremony at Ifewara lasts for a month.
All the egungun lineages, after having conferred with one another pick a date for the commencement of the festival while the lineage and elderly egungun will agree with the Oje on the day of the outings of their egungun to avoid any unwanted clashes with one another.
Before the commencement of egungun proper, there is Igbaja ceremony where all lineage egungun will either assemble at market square or Oba’s palace area to dance and show a sign of happiness and pleasure that they are about to witness another ceremonial year.
On the following day, the younger egungun (kunduke) will set the ball of the commencement of egungun appearances rolling. Kunduke is dressed in inner apparel called eku or ago and outer strips of multifarious beautifully enthralling colours while the face area is covered with net like material with a view to enabling the egungun to seeing and brathing properly.
The followers of Kunduke are predominated by younger people who call the kunduke names such as ole, alakisa, oloorun (meaning a slothful person, a thief, a smelly person and ragged person). Others will say araorun kin-kin-in, kaabo, meaning heavenly person, welcome. The abilere don’t always dance but run after their spectators and flog those they can catch up with, with atori whips. These activities will take place for seven days when the elderly egungun commence theirs.
The elderly egungun, particularly the lineage ones come out at the appointed day fixed by the Oje. The ceremony involves some rituals, rams, snails, cocks, beans pudding (olele) are prepared for consumption.
The rams and/or any others animal slated for the rituals are slaughtered at Orirun (grave of the ancestors). Women will be singing and chorusing “egungun mi oti igbaale de o, eyin abinu eni e ma ma foojo pawa o” meanining egungun has come out of the ancestral shrine detractors don’t cause the rain on us).
Before the egungun comes out from Igbale, the drummers and elders would have gathered at the house where the igbale is situated while lead-talking drummer uses his dundun (iyalu) to sing the praise of the egungun and panegyrics until the egungun appears backing the spectators as she comes out from Igbale.
On getting outside, he will now face the crowd, perform some rituals, step on the blood of the ritual animals praying for people and the repose of the soul of their fallen heroes/heroines. The masquerade is clad in an inner wear called eku and beautifully embroided costly variegated pieces of clothing materials called lebe with head mask to match.
There are other smaller strips over the ones in form of decorated feathers or cloth embroidery tied round the neck and a net covering the face. The head mask may be wooden. It may represent the head depicting the facial marks of the lineage or totemic animal or bird sacred to the family. It may be a female head with a woven hair do.
After the prayer, he will dance to a lot of tunes dished out by the drummers. From there he will begin to go to important places such as market square, Oba’s palace, his in lawa, etc. dancing a lot.
At Ifewara, the reigning drum system is dundun/iyalu, omelet, gudugudu, gangan, others such as Bata, Bembe, Gbedu etc. are not common.
On many occasions, the egungun follows the dictate of the lead drummers before acting. For instance, if a woman is to contiguous to the egungun, the drummers may sing using his drum to say ‘ bobirin ba ma wok o gbodo wi” meaning a woman who is abreast of the cult of egungun, dare not to divulge it. On hearing this, the egungun will pick a specially prepared dried atori whip to flog people in the vicinity while the crowd take to their heels.
The elderly egungun follow similar procedure in their activities till the close of the festival.The egungun will entertain his spectators until evening or even till midnight when he will go back to Igbale thus putting paid to the activities of the day.Like egungun called Owolewa (money is beauty), when it is about to end the ceremony, he will grow up a big pot which should not land on anybody.
Before this takes place, spectators must be forewarned because the broken pot must not hit anybody as anybody that is hit by it will never witness the following year.
At Ifewara, egungun festival is annual unless there is any special occasion that may warrant one or two egungun appearing.There is no egungun alare or onidan (pure entertainment or magical egungun) at Ifewara. They only come from Ede or Oyo and Ibadan to entertain. Some of them perform on wooden sticks, some sing and dance and comment on current affairs and some are satirical of some events.
The magical egun can turn themselves into pythons, lions etc they do this with a view to collecting money and other gifts. Their appearances are not annual. They do it regularly.
Importance of Egungun
Firstly, Egungun make it incumbent on the lineage members to protect and promote the good image of the lineage as the ancestors can fatally deal with any erring members.
Secondly, it serves as an instrument of winning popular support for the Oba because the head of each lineage (Alaagbo) represents the lineage before the Oba. Since each lineage pay obeisance to the Alaagbo whom in turn does this to the Oba, then the Oba is in dubitably supported in totality.
Also, Egungun is used to ward off evil spirits. Especially Egungun Alaagbo (Carrier of herb) or Eleru (Carrier of load)
However, it also promotes a social gathering during the festival, where one can shrug off tendency to feel dejected. Finally, it serves as an avenue where bachelors and spinsters can be connected as future husbands and wives.
- S.M.O. AWOBEKU, National Museum, Onikan-Lagos.
