Paper long abstract:

This paper will document and analyse the changing status of Egigun, a form of masquerade cognate with Egungun, in the Ekiti town of Ikole. The paper will consider the introduction of these masquerades in the early twentieth century and the changes that have occurred in the utilisation of masquerades through out the twentieth century. Through an analysis of aesthetic innovation, particularly associated with an increasing individuality this paper will document the way in which changing priorities, in masquerade, but also within the town, are given expression in the performance of certain Egigun. This in turn leads to a questioning of the incipient obsolescence of the technical uses of other masquerades in the town. These changes are staged against a backdrop of modernisation, and increasing Pentecostal activity, yet for many young men in Ikole the performance of at least one masquerade remains very much "the real thing".