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In Search of Ancient Kings: Egúngún in Brazil

Online ISBN:
9781496834508
Print ISBN:
9781496834461
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi
Book

In Search of Ancient Kings: Egúngún in Brazil

Published online:
20 January 2022
Published in print:
29 July 2021
Online ISBN:
9781496834508
Print ISBN:
9781496834461
Publisher:
University Press of Mississippi

Abstract

This book offers a rare glimpse into the Egúngún Society of Brazil, the Yorùbá-based society of ancestor worship, venerated through invocation of ritually clothed spirits. Existing contemporaneously with the tradition of Candomblé, the work posits that the cult’s survival since slave times is a miracle of retention. Thriving initially only on the island of Itaparica, its geographical isolation enabled the society to maintain its ritual orthodoxy. Egúngún has historically been labeled masquerades, but the text argues against the use of this term. In three parts, the book first presents the author’s experiences and edited field notes from Brazil, a bold attempt to document the transmission of a West African indigenous heritage through the lens of a participant, culminating in the author’s initiation at a sanctioned temple in Rio de Janeiro. The text outlines the author’s forty-year involvement with African Diasporic religious traditions. Part two is a necessary historical overview of Egúngún in Yorùbáland and Brazil; the text compares and contrasts the society on both continents, supporting the thesis of African continuity. Part three is an historical reconstruction of Egúngún ritual lineages of Itaparica from the early 1800’s, and an interview with the author’s godfather, a high-ranking Ojé, who was initiated into Egúngún heritage through a prophetic letter from his grandfather whom he never met. The book argues for the propagation of Egúngún as a crucial element in African Diaspora spiritual practices, as perpetuated by the author’s original godmother in the US. The text contains affecting Yorùbá devotional poetry, and multiple photographs.

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