Egungun is a Yoruba masquerade known for its elaborate nature and how people fear the masquerade.
Egungun festivals are celebrated in honour of the dead. Annual rites honouring the deceased are held in the Yoruba faith to ensure that their ancestors have a place among the living. They think the ancestors should urge the living to preserve the ethical norms of their clan, community, or family’s previous generations.
The Egungun are honoured at Odun Egungun festivals and in family rituals through the masquerade tradition. Priests and initiates trained in Egungun have mastered ancestral communication, ancestral elevation, and funerary ceremonies.
As masquerades, they dress up in colourful costumes to perform their tricks on the public. They are said to drum and dance to be possessed by the ancestors’ spirits.
Spiritually cleansing their community, the Egungun robed priests mime and act out ethical and immoral behaviour that took place since their last visit.
Note that the Egungun’s functions in Yoruba culture are divided into several categories, including ancestral protection; theatrical performance; summoning of some before military expeditions in pre-colonial times; controlling the Oba’s excesses; promoting family or social aesthetics; and cultural preservation.
Any Egungun’s physical performance is fuelled by the spirits of his ancestors. “Eku” (the Egungun costumes) and the performer become one.
During the time of the display, they are more than mere mortals; they are spirits of the dead, ancestors, and gatekeepers of Olodumare. When performed, the masquerade represents the ancestral presence and power (aṣẹ) through its movements and appearance.
Egungun in Yoruba are different, they perform different duties, there are Egungun for the age-grade association, deity worship, etc.
There are Egungun’s such as the “Gelede,” a glamorous and trendy masquerade that celebrates the spirit of African womanhood, pushes for female gender equality, and protects women’s rights.
Although males traditionally wear the hat, Danafojura (Egungun Oni Mojesin Baba Ibeji) is a well-known Oyo Kingdom figure. This Egungun is fire-resistant, meaning he will not be consumed by a fire of any magnitude. He can knock people out and then bring them back to life.
He is an ancient and powerful Egun who is feared and respected by his peers and is referred to as the clan’s “ELDER.” He performs his dance amid a massive fire. When he first leaves his coven, he calls out to his handlers “Danafojura,” which means “Set me on fire.”
Some Egungun appear at specific times and seasons of the year, making them celebratory periods, while others appear at random and unannounced — a hint of danger approaching that village or region could prompt this.
The Egungun’s significance in Yoruba culture is to maintain the land’s cultural dependency and tradition, using culture as an anchor for a progressive future, much like the colourful hundreds of fabrics that make up the Egungun outfit, all attached to the Egun’s body.