Egungun, a deity with a colorful dress, is one of the greatest divinities in Yoruba land. Among traditions, there are lots of stories about Egungun cult and how it sprouted among the Yoruba. It refers to all types of Yoruba masquerades or masked, costumed figures. Specifically, it refers to the Yoruba masquerades connected with ancestral reverence, or to the ancestors themselves as a collective force.
Egungun festival is part of the Yoruba religious system, sometimes referred to as Orisa. It is celebrated as festivals and rituals through the masquerade. An elder from the Egungun family called Alagbaa sometimes presides over the ancestral rites. But priests are the ones in charge of invoking the spirits of the ancestors and bringing them out.
The invocation is done when the worshippers dance, drum, and become possessed by the ancestral spirits, so much that they flog everybody they see with their whips. They believe that using the whip on people can help cleanse the community of wickedness. After this, the priest advises, warns and prays for the spectators and people give them money which evidently results in the priests becoming richer.
However, Global Affairs Magazine correspondents who covered the annual Egungun Jimiwo Festival on April 17th at Ikene Remo, Ogun state brings the excerpts as the family of Ogunmefun-Omosanyan of Ikene Remo held an epoch-making festival on Easter day.
The event was hosted by London based Nigerian culture ambassador, Amb. Babatunde Olusegun Jimiwo a.k.a Teddyblings. While addressing top and influential journalists that covered the event, Babatunde remarked that traditional practices cannot be taken away from the human race.
"I have been to many European, Africa and Asia countries, and I realized that they are traditional people and these traditional practices makes them progress to a large extent.
"Egungun Jimiwo has been in existence for over 140 years, it's from my great-grandfather down to Jimiwo himself, to my father and now to me and it will still go down to my son because it's a generational thing. I came home all the way from UK to host this year's festival.
When asked by journalists about the benefits of continuing With these traditional practices Babatunde said "We celebrate Jimiwo Festival every Easter Sunday and Monday and the benefits are enormous.
"To the best of my knowledge you cannot take away traditional practices from humanity. Like I said, I have been to Japan and these people don't believe in Christianity or Islam but they are excelling. I'm not here to condemn any religion but they are all foreign religions.
"I stand to believe that there's no family in Yoruba land that doesn't have one native thing or the other that they practice. Be it Ogun, Songo, Egun, Oya, Obatala, and so on but because of religion we tend to forget because somehow we have been brain washed.
"People think traditional practices is as good as worshipping the devil but it is not like that, traditional practice is not a bad thing. For instance if you approach a chief priest with a problem and he consults the Oracle who proffered solution to your problem. When you come back to show appreciation to the chief priest, he also thanks the Oracle and the Oracle also give thanks to God almighty who is the creator of heaven and earth, the only one living God. What does that mean to you? It means that there is only one living God that we are all serving, whether you are a Christian Muslim or traditionalist.
"So whatever you call it, be it Egun Sango, Ogun or Obatala they are just a symbol that leads to our destination.
"Let's be frank with ourselves there's no way you can take away traditional practices from humanity. When you look at countries like China, Japan, Malaysia and so many Asia countries you discover that they are Idol worshippers and till today they are doing excellently well. So these days being religious is not an automatic ticket to your destination.
"If everyone will go back home, take a closer look at the usefulness of our culture or long abandoned tradition I strongly believe that we will move forward and be much more progressive than we are now." Babatunde posited.
According to the Ogun state born business mogul, Babatunde Olusegun Jimiwo, "I'm based in UK, I was born and brought up in Lagos state but I'm an indigene of Ogun state. Ikene to be precise. I traveled all the way from UK to come and do my Egungun Festival."
Babatunde is a frontline promoter of Nigerian culture, his face has been seen globally promoting the rich Yoruba culture with a passion to change the often negative perception of the Nigeria rich cultures and traditions by outsiders.
Comments
Post a Comment