The Egungun

What an Egungun is

For a family, the Egungun represents a relationship with those who came before us. That is why I dislike it when the Egungun is reduced to someone who has simply put on a costume: the costume precisely stops the man from appearing as an ordinary individual. In the traditional understanding, the Egungun is a manifestation linked to the ancestors. When it comes out, the family recognises something that belongs to its history. A tradition is preserved because people learn, pass on, respect the prohibitions, and know what may be shown and what must stay within the family or religious frame^[1].

The art historian Henry Drewal, a specialist of Yoruba arts, translates their name as “concealed powers”. The Yoruba conceive of two worlds that answer each other, that of the living and the other world, where the ancestors go on guiding their descendants: “the world is a market, the other world is home,” says a proverb. Cloth is the first material of the Egungun, made of superimposed layers, and the wind it raises as it whirls is received as a breath of blessing^[2][3].

Only men wear the costume. Women who can compose and sing form the chorus that sings the praises and stories of the lineage. Among the Yoruba of Oyo, two titles are reserved for them in the procession, Ìyá Àgan and Ìyá Mojè, given to women past menopause who accompany the Egungun and sing its praises^[4]. In Benin, the heritage inventory notes likewise that the mask, reserved for men, is assisted by an elderly woman of recognised powers^[5]. In the tradition I practise, I prefer to avoid general sentences such as “women are not allowed to”: the rules can depend on the ceremony, the function and the family, and there are different places and responsibilities^[1].

From Oyo to the Nago towns of Benin

The cult is of Yoruba origin, and those responsible for it in Benin trace it to Oyo, in Nigeria. It is present in the Nago towns of Benin, and it also spread into the Adja-Tado area, among the Fon and the Gun, through conquests and alliances: there the Egungun became a deified ancestor of the community, honoured under the names kluto or kouvito^[5][6]. In Ouidah, an oral tradition reported by those responsible for the cult links the arrival of the Egungun to captives from Nigeria under King Ghezo, who is said to have chosen the town to host their cult; this entry reports it without being able to date it from archives^[6].

The outings are town events. In Pobè, in January 2018, the Agence Bénin Presse described the launch of an outing of some fifty Egungun from the sacred forest of Igbo-Agan, for three months of parades and prayers, following the vodun festival^[7]. In Sakété, the photographer Michael Landau documented the great outing of 2017 in the art magazine Raw Vision: a festival returning every three years, opened by a ceremony conducted under the Fâ, followed by sixteen days of outings^[8].

How an outing unfolds

According to Raw Vision, the Egungun of Sakété walk the streets from early afternoon to dusk, each surrounded by a procession of drums, songs and dances, and parades gather large crowds. The Egungun give blessings, but some chase “guilty” spectators with thin branches, and most are guided by an attendant with a stick, who also restrains violent gestures. The wearers, all men, speak in a strangled, high-pitched voice that hides their identity, and the spectators hold the Egungun to be fully divine^[8].

Visitors often misunderstand the chases. When an Egungun chases someone with a branch, a spectator may think it is simply an aggression; I would present the scene differently. Egungun can behave differently according to their function and the context of their outing: some behaviours are sterner, others are associated with blessing, interaction with the people, or protection. But that never gives the public the right to provoke an Egungun. If you see a chase, respect what is happening and leave the space needed. As for the money some people give during an outing, it should not automatically be seen as paying for a show: a gift can accompany a request, a blessing or a participation in the festival^[1].

The rules for those who watch

If you attend an outing of Egungun, the first rule is simple: keep your distance^[1].

• Do not touch the Egungun.
• Do not try to lift its costume.
• Do not try to discover the person underneath.
• Do not provoke the Egungun to get a spectacular video.

For photographs and videos, use discernment too. A street event is public, but that does not mean every person, place and sequence may be photographed as one wishes^[1].

Egungun, Kouvito, Zangbéto and Oro

These traditions must not be mixed up. The Egungun is linked to the ancestors. Kouvito refers, depending on usage and tradition, to the dead or to revenants, and should not automatically be used as a perfect synonym of Egungun. The Zangbéto belongs to another tradition, associated with watching over and protecting the community, particularly at night: see the entry on the Zangbéto. Oro is also distinct, with its own rules, periods and religious frame. These traditions can belong to the same cultural environment and the same regions without being one and the same^[1].

The Egungun of Brazil

The cult crossed the Atlantic with Yoruba captives. In Bahia, it settled on the island of Itaparica, where the terreiro Ilê Agboulá, founded at the beginning of the twentieth century, descends in a direct line from houses established in the nineteenth century. In 1976, the anthropologist Juana Elbein dos Santos devoted a classic book to it, Os Nàgô e a morte, which describes the cult of the Égun as the means of making the spirits of the ancestors visible among the living^[9][10]. In Brazil, the ancestors invoked are called Babá Egun, “father Egun”, and the cult is held in houses separate from those of the orixás; each 2 November, the day of the dead, the Ilê Agboulá celebrates its great festival^[11].

The Egungun in the eyes of others

The Egungun fascinate artists and museums. The Porto-Novo photographer Léonce Raphaël Agbodjélou devoted his series “Egungun Project” to them, exhibited abroad^[12]. Henry Drewal dedicated an exhibition to them, “Whirling Return of the Ancestors”, which invites everyone to think about how they honour their own ancestors^[2]. For us, the Egungun belongs to a religious and family tradition: the public can see the dance, hear the drums and share the atmosphere of the festival, but behind this visible dimension lies a reality that goes far beyond what happens in the street^[1].