The Origin of Egungun: A Critical Literary Appraisal

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Periodical article

Title:	The Origin of Egungun: A Critical Literary Appraisal
Author:	Na'allah, Abdul-Rasheed
Year:	1996
Periodical:	African Study Monographs
Volume:	17
Issue:	2
Pages:	59-68
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Yoruba masquerades oral poetry (form) Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Architecture and the Arts
External link:	https://jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/ASM%20%20Vol.17%20No.2%201996/Abdul-Rasheed%20NA%60ALLAH.pdf
Abstract:	Samuel Johnson (1973), a famous Yoruba historian, posited that Egungun, the African cultic masquerade in Nigeria, originated from the Nupe country. S.F. Nadel (1954), another historian, claimed that masquerade worshippers in Nupeland were Nupe-ized Yorubas. Oludare Olajubu (1970), a folklorist and Professor of Yoruba literature, supported Nadel. The present author examines the arguments on both sides. This, together with his own recent discovery that Dadakuada, an Ilorin oral art, originated from the Egungun poetry, the Iwi, leads him to conclude that the origin of Egungun can be traced to the Nupe religion. Egungun was an element used for oppression. The Nupe developed it to put fear in the hearts of women and children. Later they used it to harass their neighbours and bamboozle them into submission. Bibliogr., notes, sum.