Egungun

The Egungun represents the collective spirits of the ancestors among the Yoruba in Nigeria. Like other African people, the Yoruba believe that when a person dies, he or she passes into the world of the ancestors. These ancestral spirits are within the Sasa stage of existence (i.e., the arena of the living, the unborn, and the ancestors) and can assist the community in carrying out its daily activities. Thus, according to the Yoruba, it is quite effective for the community to have the use and assistance of the ancestors in their ordinary lives. Because the living-dead, as they are sometimes called, watch over the society so long as they are remembered ritually, the Egungun must make an appearance on Earth to demonstrate this reality.

For the ancestors to be ritually remembered, they have to appear in the memory of the people. Once they are no longer in the memory, they cease to exist for the community. Therefore, the deceased might appear in a dream state or when someone is placed in a trance through music and dance. The ancestors can give advice, instructions, or rebukes to the living through the dreamer. The Egungun is the collective spirit of all the ancestors as they come to provide information about the conditions and situations confronting the society. One masked individual may be used to represent the entire spirit of the Egungun.

In this expression, the Egungun is a masked individual, always a man, who is an ancestor making a temporary reappearance among the living. Nothing of the person is visible with the Egungun mask. It covers the entire human body from the head to the feet, and there should be no visible elements of the individuality of the human wearing the mask. Should an unfortunate person wearing an Egungun mask reveal his identity, the person is supposed to be put to death because he would have shown himself to be an imposter of an ancestor.

Indeed, contact with an Egungun could also bring punishment and death, and the Egungun is always accompanied by those who have whips to drive onlookers away from the Egungun. In the past, if the garment of an Egungun touched a man, woman, or child, the wearer of the mask and everyone who was touched by the garment would be put to death. The Egungun ceremony and festival remains one of the most powerful, misunderstood mysteries of Africa.

The word Egungun is said to mean “skeleton.” In some respects, the Egungun performer is a man who has risen from the dead and disguises himself with a long elaborate robe of cloth and raffia with a carved wood mask, composed of antlers, skulls, and anything from contemporary society. A long train of fabric is used to cover the steps of the Egungun. In addition to the way the Egungun performer looks, he must also change his voice to a falsetto or low grumbling type voice so that no one can identify him. This illusion is maintained because the Egungun as an ancestral relative does not have the voice of someone living in the village. His voice is strange and unknown.

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