Egungu Mask at The British Museum, London

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Egungun, in its broadest definition, encompasses all Yoruba masquerades or masked figures. In a more specific sense, Egungun refers to the Yoruba masquerades connected with ancestor reverence, or the ancestors themselves as a collective force. The singular form, for an individual ancestor, is Egun. Among the Yoruba, annual ceremonies in honor of the dead serve as a means of ensuring their ancestors' place among the living. They believe the ancestors have the responsibility to compel the living to uphold the ethical standards of past generations of their clan, town or family. The Egungun are celebrated in festivals, known as Odun Egungun, and in family ritual through the masquerade custom. The Egungun ensemble serves as the medium for the masker's transformation into his ancestors. An Egungun society is composed of men and women whose lineages have the right to present the masquerade. Men perform the masking, while women participate in the chorus that sings oriki praise poems and histories of the families. Elder women of high title also perform invocations, prayers, and offerings. At annual festivals, each of the numerous lineages is given a separate day to perform. The masker is kept at a distance from the surrounding crowd with the help of attendants dressed in masquerade costumes of different types. After all the Egungun have danced, the ensembles are stored until the next performance.