Ọdun Ṣango

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve updated this page. Life has been a bit busy here, maybe a bit too much so as I was sick for a little while too. I’m perfectly fine, and I hadn’t gotten sick in over a year so it was bound to happen sooner or later. What took up so much time was the Sango festival, which is about a week and a half long, and at times it can run straight from one day into the next. Because I didn’t have much downtime and the electricity isn’t always reliable, it was a challenge being able to record and take pictures of it all, but the festival is really something, and I would highly encourage anyone in this part of Nigeria in October to come to Ede to see it.

The whole thing starts with a night vigil in the palace and a procession to the Osun River the next morning where they do several rituals for Sango and the whole town, and while that attracts a lot of people, I think the most popular part is what comes in the following days. Each day after that for almost a week a different Sango possession priest comes out into a big square by the palace does some dances, prays for the king and the town, and performs lots of “magic tricks” which is what really draws the big crowds. I say “magic tricks” because some of them are a bit like parlor tricks that a magician in the US would do, but then there are others that I’m pretty sure are only possible because the priests are supposed to be impervious to pain while possessed, and certain things are not supposed to be able to affect them!

One of my favorites was one priest/Sango who had a folded piece of paper, poured water into it, unfolded it entirely and showed everyone that it was dry! Then he folded it back up again, poured the water into his mouth from a height so we could see it, and then spat it out on the ground! Another trick one of them did was to give one of the chiefs a rope while his acolytes held both ends tightly, then he cut it in the middle, put the cut section in his mouth, chewed on it, and when he took it out of his mouth, the cut was gone and the rope was whole. These kinds of ones got paired with other more scary displays such as driving a metal rod through Sango’s tongue and/or lips and removing it without leaving a hole (probably the most common and well-known), literally eating flaming hot coals and breathing out the smoke, hammering nails into different parts of his head (usually under the eye and into the nostrils), or putting sizzling hot iron in his mouth! This happened in the afternoon everyday for almost a week, and each day the crowd got bigger and bigger, and harder and harder to keep under control. People, especially kids, went crazy for Sango’s magic, especially another common trick where he pulls out a box, shows that it is empty, then closes it, and when he opens it there are tons of pieces of candy that he throws to the crowd.

I have videos of almost all of the performances that I am likely to put online at some point when I get back so you can see them if you’d like, and because of all of the pictures and videos that I managed to take, I have a meeting with the head of the committee that plans the festival to help them promote the event for next year. Practically the whole committee is Muslim, interestingly enough, but they and the king have been very deliberate about wanting this festival to become a major cultural event in Yorubaland that attracts people from all over. While most people who were there weren’t traditionalists, I ran into several Muslims and Christians who said they wouldn’t go because it’s against their religion, but I heard that practically everyone was happy with all of the money that came into the city as a result of it!

After all of the Sango displays are done, there is a very curious ritual in which a man from a certain family (it has always been and will always be the same family) comes out and carries a special ritual fire in a calabash and has to carry it around the entire town for almost 24 hours before he can go back home. What makes it even more strange is that he initially comes out wearing several layers of fancy clothes, but when he begins going around town, he is almost completely naked! Once he is ready to go back home, several of the most prominent Egungun masquerades come out, but they can’t do so until this man (called Baba Agbajere) returns to his house. I think I have figured out the meaning behind all of these strange particularities, but you can read about it in my dissertation if you’d like!

The Egungun ancestral masquerades come out that following day and dance around that same square for quite some time, attracting huge crowds, and when the king comes out, the come to him in succession to pray for him, for the town, and to receive some gifts of money in return. Then they run all around town for a while before returning back to their houses. The noise from the drums and the crowd was almost overwhelming, and it is really fascinating to see all of the different masquerades and their unique attributes. If I have enough time, I am going to try to visit the houses that maintain each one to hear the story behind them and why them appear the way they do and behave the way they do since each one seems to have its own personality.

The next day, there is a really incredible program in the palace in which a different set of Egungun masquerades come and do a series of tricks and performances. They do things like turn their costumes inside out without revealing themselves underneath, changing into costumes that can grow up to 4-5 times the height of a person but also shrink to a third the size of a person, do impressive dances, and (the best part for me) was their acrobatic displays. There were some young kids in them who did a great job, and the most impressive guy had two others hold up a piece of cloth as high up as they could and he did a backflip over it! One of the guys in the masquerade also told stories and jokes while they were preparing for different acts, and he kept referring to a time when he went to American with the king, and he even mentioned going to Delaware, which surprised me! Later that evening there is one more Egungun called Ondoru who comes out, and I think it has to be the most interesting to me. This is because people get really excited when they see it, and yell “O ru ooooo!” and then it throws sticks at people! I have no idea why this happens (although I will definitely find out!), but people like getting close to it, and then run away when it starts winding up. Ondoru usually has several young men following him with bundles of these sticks, and I noticed several people get hit with them, sometimes in the head, and more than once Ondoru tossed them over his shoulder at the unsuspecting people behind him! Once they are on the ground though, everyone scrambles to get the sticks, and I managed to get one before leaving for the day. During this whole series of events during the festival, the king was very kind to me and let me get very close to him (which nobody but his servants, wives, and brother are usually allowed to do) so I could take pictures and so he could give me some information on all of the things that were going on. He even took some time after it was all over to talk to me 1 on 1!

Another interesting thing about the festival is that it takes place at the end of the rainy season, which means it usually rains heavily each and every evening. This, of course, is right when the Sango displays take place, but it never rained while they were happening. It would rain before and after, but never during. The chief Sango priest told me that it is because the first Sango worshippers did some kind of rituals when Ede was founded to prevent it from happening, and told me stories about how people were concerned about it raining, but as soon as they get started, it stops abruptly. On the day when Baba Agbajere came out and carried the fire all around town, it started raining heavily (despite the fact that they were burning some leaves that were meant to stop that kind of thing), but a young guy came out of nowhere with an egg that he threw up toward the sky. When it came down, it broke on the ground, and everyone said the rain would stop. Sure enough, 5 minutes later the rain had stopped even though there were lots of stormy clouds in the sky! I know the Araba knows several of these rain-stopping techniques, and I’m very curious about them because I know our family used to know things like that several generations back as well.

I have spent a lot of time with several pastors recently to hear a bit more of what it is like for them in Ede, and I’ve been getting a lot of information on the history of specific churches in town. They have all been very, very nice and helpful (like everyone else), and they also seem to love the king a lot. They have stressed that one of the most important things the churches have done in town is providing education and medical services to everyone, regardless of religion, and while it sometimes draws people into their churches, several have told me that they are less concerned about that than with helping people. One of them actually told me a very funny story about the way another pastor helped a woman who came to him to help her son pass an important exam. Many people treat pastors the same way the treat traditional priests or diviners who can provide spiritual services in the form of charms or certain rituals in addition to prayer to help people succeed in one thing or the other, and that’s what this woman was hoping to get from the pastor. This particular pastor doesn’t consider that to be the way his office should work, but he wanted to help her and came up with a brilliant strategy. He told her to go buy him 7 candles and come back 24 hours after dropping them off. When she came back, he told her that he had specially prepared them to make her son succeed in the exam, and all she had to do to unlock their power was to make her son sit down each night for 7 nights and study in front of the candle until it went out. Sure enough, her son did well on the test, and she began telling everyone how strong this pastor’s spiritual power was!

I’ve also enjoyed talking to some Ogun worshippers or hunters as they specialize in just this kind of spiritual power and have wild stories about things they have done or seen. One of them told me some crazy stories about people who have killed animals they weren’t supposed to and how the animals came back to life, walked out of their houses and went back to where they lived in the forest, and also clever ways they have come up with to try to make sure that people don’t abuse the impressive power they have. Still, people always seem to mess things up, so each successive generation seems to know and be able to do a bit less than the one that came before it since the old men don’t always trust the younger ones to use it appropriately. This is something I’ve heard and seen with the Araba as well, and while it’s a bit of a shame, it’s certainly not worse than the alternative.

In some of my other interviews, I’ve been surprised by how – despite the fact that there isn’t much overt religious conflict here – practically every instance of conversion, and especially inter-religious marriage, causes serious family drama. One person I talked to was disowned by his parents, one woman’s parents didn’t come to her wedding, and it’s clear that it has hurt all of them. At the same time, they all without fail pray that their own kids will marry only within their religion, so the same thing is likely to happen if their kids make the same decision. I can certainly understand both of those sentiments, and both pastors and alfa (muslim clerics) have cited marrying across religious lines as a serious issue, although they each chose to approach it differently. It’s a very touchy subject, but I’ve also met just a few people who marry across religious lines without any issue, but they tend to be older and say that they are very much in the minority these days.

One thing that has started happening to me while going around everywhere with Wale is that people just call me “wọli” (a Yoruba word for prophet) or pastor. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I just look so different, but one woman insisted that I was a prophet, even I after I politely tried to tell her that I’m not a prophet or even a clergyman. She just kept shaking her head, looking at Wale and saying, “Irọ, wọli ni. Wọli ni…” or “Nope, he’s a prophet, he’s a prophet.” Wale just laughs and laughs whenever it happens. A few days ago I went to the cafeteria here on campus, and I asked a really nice woman who works there how things were going. When she answered that she’s fine, just needs more money, I did what most people usually do and said a short prayer/wish for her that things would get better. Next thing I knew, another guy came up to me and said, “What about my prayer?” so I said one for him too, and then another guy ran up to me and asked for one for himself as well. After I finished, he said, “It’s pastor/prophet what?” and I again had to say that I’m just a regular guy, and he looked really confused. I snuck away as quickly as possible since I had work to do and didn’t want to start an all-night prayer meeting right there and then!