What is the purpose of the Egungun festival what group of people celebrate it?
Celebrated in southwestern Nigeria by the Yorubas, the Egungun Festival is dedicated to the worship of ancestors. It is said that the circumstances surrounding the origin of the festival are full of mystique and based on a legendary folklore.
What happens in the Yoruban Egungun festival?
The Egungun is a secret society among the Yoruba people of Ede, Oyo State, Nigeria. The major Egungun festival takes place in June, when members of the society come to the market place and perform masked dances. The masks they wear represent ancestral spirits and may cover the whole body or just the face.
What is the purpose of Egungun ceremonies?
The most widespread masquerade is the egungun of the Yoruba. Like all masquerades, the egungun is a multimedia performance designed to honor the dead, and a wide variety of masks and costumes are used to communicate with ancestral spirits. Ceremonies do not have a standardized format.
What is the meaning of Egungun?
Egungun, (egúngún with Yorùbá language tone marks) in the broadest sense is any Yoruba masquerade or masked, costumed figure. More specifically, it is a Yoruba masquerade for ancestor reverence, or the ancestors themselves as a collective force.
Are EGUN Yorubas?
According to Falola, the Egun are an ethnic subgroup of the Yoruba (n.d). They occupy southwestern Nigeria, and can be found elsewhere—in the Republic of Benin and Togo in West Africa and, as members of the African diaspora, in the American continent” (ibid.). …
Is EGUN part of Nigeria?
The Ogu people, sometimes called Egun people, are an ethnic group located majorly in Lagos and Ogun State in the South-Western part of Nigeria. The Ogu people have varieties of dialects including Thevi, Xwela, Seto and Toli and they also account for about 15% of the indigenous population of Lagos State.
What is the language of Egun people?
Although the people belong to the Yoruba tribe of Southwest Nigeria, they speak a distinct language from the main Yoruba spoken in its land. They have varieties of dialects which include Thevi, Xwela, Seto and Toli. Gun is the main language spoken by the indigenes.
What language is spoken in Badagry?
Ogu
The native language of Badagry is Ogu,a dialect of Aja and similar to the Fon language, an Aja sub-group that is spoken in Porto-Novo.
What are the two types of festivals?
Types of festivals
- Religious festivals.
- Arts festivals.
- Food and drink festivals.
- Seasonal and harvest festivals.
Where are the Egun people located in Nigeria?
The Eguns in Lagos state are located majorly in Badagry, a coastal town and Local Government Area in Lagos state, Nigeria. It is situated between the city of Lagos and it’s border with Benin at Seme. Egun people are found in the Yewa and Ijokia region of Ogun state.
What kind of language do the Egun people speak?
Although the people belong to the Yoruba tribe of Southwest Nigeria, they speak a distinct language from the main Yoruba spoken in its land. They have varieties of dialects which include Thevi, Xwela, Seto and Toli. Gun is the main language spoken by the indigenes.
What kind of food do the Egun people eat?
Since they live in coastal areas, the majority of the indigenes are into fishing, coconut processing, and salt production. Others are involved in trading and farming. Common native food to the Egun includes pap and stew, azori bokun, Benin red sauce, peanut sauce, and vegetable soup.