Precepts for Tenure Ethics in Yoruba Egungun (Masquerade) Proverbs (Report)

Introduction: Yoruba (1) Egungun Tradition The Egungun festival (2) is always full of sights and sounds that give immense entertainment to all spectators, both indigenes and visitors in every community where it is held. This is however not what is of real importance in the festival. The artistic aspects (3)--costumes, acrobatics, singing, drumming, dancing, community fellowship, and feasting--important as they are, are not the ultimate function of the Egungun festival among the Yoruba. Thus when attention is carefully paid to the underlying ideas of the festival, it becomes obvious that we ought to go deeper than the artistic surface if we hope to reach and benefit from the social message that the festival strives to portray (4).