EGUNGUN MASK

This mask was carved in Yorúba Land Abeokuta Nigeria about 75 years ago.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Mask Field Notes-----------------------------*

2. Spiritual; Personalized Items---------------*

3. While Speaking Of The Dead--------------*

4. A Word About The Image-------------------*

5. The Walking Dead----------------------------*

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MASK FIELD NOTES

The Egungun mask was brought to the United States by Chief Dr. Olu. Adekanmbi from Abeokuta during his visit in the late spring to late summer of 1997. It was sold in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, California, the following year.

 

Drummers in front of Chief's Palace

The literal translation of the word Egungun means "the walking dead". Yorubas do not carve ancestor figures, ancestor stools, nor ancestor masks. The dead come back to visit the living during Egungun festivals. Egungun masks represent the spirit of egungun rather than spirit of a dead person. A single, or group of egungun spirits can impersonate a verity of dead people.

SPIRITUAL; PERSONALIZED ITEMS

Ancestor images are personalized objects of parents. Think of photograph images as personalized. Then think of photographs as a means of communicating with deceased once they have departed from the physical world. If that departed person is a parent, then that parent is a "deity link" since their body was used as a physical instrument, by which you were transferred from the spiritual world into the physical world.

 

 

WHILE SPEAKING OF THE DEAD

 

Something needs to be said about Ere Ibeji figurines and Ibeji Epa masks. An ibeji is a twin. Among Yorúba people the word twin, in their language, is a spiritual  term and can never be associated with other items. Twin is not a true mathematical term. Ibeji speaks through humans, therefore only humans bare twins. All other animals bare litter.

 

An ibeji is a deity personified as a real human being on earth. They help families better their conditions. It is like having a deity on earth; a deity, or cultural hero apart of your family, under the same roof; living in your own household as a personal hotline to the spiritual world.

 

That one set of deity can be shared in many households all over Yorúba Land; in fact all over the world simultaneously. This way many families, rich and poor have access to ibeji all at the same time.

 

When one ibeji dies, in a household, an image of that deity is carved to take its place. It doesn't mater if the deity dies with-in an hour of birth, or as an adult, a wooden image is still made. This wooden image replacement serves as a calling card to connect with the real ibeji spirit.

 

It is when an ibeji produces a family; then dies as an adult, that the controversy of ancestor figure evolves. If an ibeji dies as an adult then this is one of the few instance where an image of the deceased relative could be said to be treated as ancestor figure and at the same time representative of a departed cultural hero deity as well.

 

Ere Ibeji we must remember are not personalized. They visit humans on earth in human form and depart back where they came from. Ibeji don't die. Ibeji slip away then re-appear else where. People have to share them. If too many are out all at once then some ibeji must be reclaimed in order to serve other households.

 

As a rule; Yorúba do not carve ancestor images in the form of mask, figurines, or stools. Keep in mind that ancestor figures are personalized and ibeji are not; therefore everybody may have different ancestors, but those who have ibeji all have the same set of deity and even have the same names, since ibeji deity are always all the same.

A WORD ABOUT THE IMAGE

We have been using the word image in relations to human produced cultural images. There is another kind of image, a spiritual image, one produced by nature. This image is often a type of food material proscribed for that deity alone; often referred to as the "deity's favorite".

We produce African spiritual sculpture to serve the same capacity that the image of Jesus on the cross serves in Christianity and nothing more than that. Crucifix is a human security blanket, or calling place while you do what ever it is you are suppose to do. If you are required to read scriptures, pray, or meditate then the cultural Crucifix will help your mind and spirit focus on a task at hand.

The Christian Bible speaks of animal sacrifices to be met, but Euro-Christians never practice them. The last sacraments at the beginning of each month is a symbolic representation of a sacrifice that many Euroes practice.

The sarifices of animals on an alter is still being practiced in Ethiopia. Stone alters in Ethiopia look the same as they did during bibical days.

The animals sacriced at the alter  represent the images of Christian dieties (father, son, & holy gost) and not the image of a man on the cross.

THE WALKING DEAD

Egungun comes out during funerals. (to be continued)

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Written & Edited by Claude Lockhart Clark

© 1997

AFRICAN METROPOLIS ART SERIES

Yorúba Land is marked in blue on the map. This is a map showing some of the countries on the west coast of Africa.

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Egungun