Masquerading is very popular in Nigeria and Africa. There are major three tribes in Nigeria and they are;
All the aforementioned tribes have their respective masquerades, so as a part of the Yoruba, will be a privilege to provide a few pieces of information about the masquerading process in the Yoruba tribe.
Masquerades in Yorubaland are referred to as "EGUNGUN" or ARA-ORUN, which means someone who came from heaven. The Yorubas often refer to
They masquerade as "ARA-ORUN" simply because they have some magical power. Masquerades can appear, disappear and pull some other stunts.
The masquerades exhibition is done once a year, During this exhibition masquerades are grouped into sections and are expected to perform different magical acts so that the audience can be well entertained. During the exhibition, there is this masquerade called the fire masquerade. The masquerade normally exposes his bother to fire for about 10-15 minutes and the fire won't burn his skin. There is another masquerade who doesn't feel pain. He carries out his magical act by allowing audiences to pay and get a cane. The cane(s) will be used on him for minutes, even sometimes hours, and he will challenge the audience by saying is that all they've gotten. At some point in time, some casualties do occur during magical acts, and as a result of this, the masquerades are always very careful with dangerous acts.
The magical stunt that is most popular and normally attracts more audience among them all is the masquerade act of receiving bullets from guns and the bullet fails to penetrate his body. The audience will pay a token and then be given a gun to shoot at the masquerade, but research has it that most of these guns are locally produced and I believe those are the set of guns their magical stunt could accommodate.
There was this funny situation that occurred. A German contractor said he has heard a lot about the masquerade in which bullets don't penetrate through his body. The German contractor expressed his happiness that he would gladly be part of the show. Meanwhile, the Garman contractor has two personal heavy agents who guide him around, and here in Africa, most security operatives are used to moving around with big guns. So immediately the act commences, the Garman man collects a rifle from one of the security operatives, he is on his way to drop the token any audience that intends to participate in the act must pay. Immediately the masquerade sited the German contractor he starting shouting "Don't collect a dime from him", The organizers told the white man that such a gun couldn't be used for this exhibition, but the white man said he was willing to pay more to partake in the act, and when the masquerade noticed that the white man insist on participating, then ran for his dear life and as from that moment, the masquerade has turned to a laughing stock
Thanks for visiting!!
All images used are mine.
