Egungun

The Sacred Ancestors

Domain: Ancestry, the Dead & Memory
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Ritual Robe of Patches

Speak with Egungun

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Yoruba people

Region

West Africa & the diaspora

Period

c. 1000 AD – present

The orixás are worshipped by the Yoruba people of present-day Nigeria and Benin, with Ile-Ife as their spiritual center. Through the slave trade, their faith crossed the Atlantic and flourished in the Americas as Candomblé, Santería, and Vodou. It is today one of the most living and widespread African religious traditions in the world.

The Osun festival in Osogbo, Nigeria, draws thousands to the sacred grove of the Osun river, a UNESCO heritage site. The Ifá oracle guides decisions through the odus, and in Brazil the Candomblé terreiros honor each orixá with their own drums, dances, colors, and foods.

At a glance

Egungun (in the scholarly tonal spelling Egúngún, often hailed as Ara Ọ̀run, “the Inhabitants of Heaven”) is the venerated collective and the individualized personification of the deified ancestors in the religion, art and political structure of the Yoruba peoples. Far from constituting an isolated cosmic deity, Egungun embodies the tangible presence of deceased patriarchs who periodically return to the world of the living (Aiyé) fully clothed in monumental textile garments of overlapping polychrome strips (eku or agọ́), which completely conceal every human feature of the masked bearer. As detailed in the chronicles of Reverend Samuel Johnson and in the pioneering ethnographic research of Ulli Beier and Pierre Verger, the cult of Egungun reached its imperial zenith in the old capital of Oyó-Ilé, where it functioned as the supreme moral tribunal of the community, able to pronounce unquestionable ethical judgments, dispel epidemics and ensure the social cohesion of families. The ritual secret is strictly guarded by the male society of the Ojés (Ẹgbẹ́ Egúngún), under the supreme command of the high priest Alágbàá, assisted by the venerable elder mothers (Ìyá Àgan and Ìyá Ẹgbẹ́), whose feminine axé is indispensable for authorizing the peaceful descent of the spirits from the beyond. In the Atlantic diaspora, the cult flourished with exclusive rigor on the Island of Itaparica, in Brazil, in historic temples such as the Ilê Agboulá, where the royal ancestors of Oyó continue to dance and counsel their descendants with supernatural guttural voices.

8 min read · Reviewed on September 30, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The robe of colored patches, the ritual whip, the mask and the dance

Family

Parents

Monarchs and Patriarchs of Oyo and Ife (deified historical rulers and clan founders who established lineages)Oya (goddess of winds and storms, sacred guardian of the funerary portal of the Igbale)

Egungun

Children

The living lineages of Yoruba families that maintain ritual covenants and memorial honors for ancestors

Genealogy according to Samuel Johnson (1921); Pierre Fatumbi Verger (1954, 1957); Corpus Canônico de Ifá (Odu Òtúrá Méjì e Òṣé Òtúrá); Ulli Beier (1956, 1959); Juana Elbein dos Santos (1976); Babatunde Lawal (1977); Marco Aurélio Luz (1983)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Samuel Johnson, The History of the Yorubas. translation: Lagos: CMS Bookshops (1921), chronicles of the Egungun society in Oyo and royal funerals.
Pierre Fatumbi Verger, Notes sur le culte des orisha et vodun à Bahia et au Dahomey. translation: Dakar: Mémoires IFAN 51 (1957), oriki and rites of Egúngún.
Ulli Beier, The Egungun Cult Among the Yoruba. translation: Anthropologica, no. 4 (1956), ethnographic study of the masqueraders of Ede.

Studies

Deoscóredes Maximiliano dos Santos (Mestre Didi), História de um Terreiro Nagô e Contos de Egun. Salvador: Editora Corrupio (1982), memoirs of the Alapini on the Itaparica tradition, 1982.
Babatunde Lawal, The Living Dead: Art and Immortality among the Yoruba of Nigeria. Africa, vol. 47, n. 1 (1977), pp. 50-61, 1977.
Marco Aurélio Luz, Agadegbé: Orixá, Egun e a Sociedade Nagô. Salvador: SECNEB (1983), the cult of Egungun on Itaparica Island, 1983.
Henry John Drewal, Gelede and Egungun: Masquerades among the Yoruba. African Arts (1978), visual and ancestral textile arts, 1978.

Name and epithets

The word egúngún (formed by the archaic reduplication of the root gún, which suggests “elevation”, “upright posture” or “sacred ancestral bone”) designates the masked ancestors who return from the Orun.

In the ancient sources

The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate, 1921 (completed in 1897 CE).

The myths

The Genesis of the Eku Textile Garments and the Pacification of the Disturbances of Oyó. As preserved in the Odu Òtúrá Méjì and narrated in the chronicles of Oyó by Samuel Johnson, during the early days of imperial expa…

Worship and archaeology

The cult of Egungun constitutes an autonomous and highly complex liturgical system in Nigeria, Benin and Brazil.

How the god was depicted

The visual language of Egungun is one of the richest and most dynamic expressions of West African textile and sculptural art.

What scholars debate

Gender Segregation and the Fundamental Role of the Ìyá Àgan. Anthropologists and researchers of African-derived religions such as Margaret Thompson Drewal and Juana Elbein dos Santos examine the ritual division of gende…

After antiquity

Egungun is one of the most acclaimed manifestations of Afro-Atlantic culture, inspiring exhibitions in prestigious international museums such as the British Museum and the Smithsonian, where its garments are celebrated…

Did you know?

Involuntary tactile contact between an ordinary person and the garment of Egungun is considered an absolute taboo (èèwọ̀); if someone touches the sacred clothing, complex purification rites must be performed to remove t…

Codex relic

Ritual Robe of Patches. The sacred garment covered in colored strips that clothes the spirit of the dead when it returns to earth.

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