Gẹlẹdẹ tradition in Yorubaland
By: Raymond Ayinla Ajeigbe.
Yoruba says 'Oju to ba ti wo’ran gẹlẹdẹ ti wo’opin
iran, ' meaning, the eyes that witness gẹlẹdẹ festival
has witnessed the peak of festival. Gẹlẹdẹ is one of
the biggest festivals in West Africa which can be
dated back to eighteen century, it originated from
Yorubaland in the south-west of Nigeria and it cut
across all the Yoruba communities around the world,
from Republic of Benin to Togo down to South and
North America.
Gẹlẹdẹ festival is not a religion but a traditional
festival mostly organized around March – May when
the raining season arrives. The motive was to honour
the ancestral women and the living mothers who are
believed to have mythical powers to bless the
community when the rain arrives for their land to
become fertile, so that the society can witness robust
agricultural harvest. Gẹlẹdẹ is also organized to
appeal to the women when the community
experience drought or sporadic death but the major
one that cut across all Yoruba community around the
globe is the one organized when the raining season
arrives.
This festival involves lots of activities such as singing,
fast paced and choreographed dancing, eating and
meeting people. Sacrifices are made by serving food
to the people (it does not involve blood or human
sacrifice). Yoruba people and the tourists traveled
back to their communities to celebrate with their
families and friends. Gẹlẹdẹ performers are usually
men and dress like women in egungun-like garment
with specially designed head-dress.
On the eve of the festival day, ẹfẹ program is
organized, where people make funny jokes to
entertain and educate people, they take a rest in the
following morning. Singing, choreographed dancing
and eating are observed in the afternoon. The festival
is full of happiness and no one is limited to perform
or witness it, be it men, women, young and old. The
spirit of this festival lasted in people till the time they
start preparing for another one. That is why Yorubas
say, Oju to ba ti wo’ran gẹlẹdẹ ti wo’opin iran.
According to Professor Babatunde lawal, who was a
former Dean of the faculty of arts at Obafemi
Owolowo University in Ile-Ife, also a professor of art
history at Virginia Commonwealth University in
Richmond, Virginia USA and visiting professor of
African and African-American Studies at Dartmouth
College…." Indeed, participation in Gẹlẹdẹ is an
intense spiritual experience: beating the drums,
dancing in costumes, receiving the blessing of the
mask, or responding to the music is like being
charged with divine energy. It is a feeling of the good
life, to be lived and enjoyed to its fullest."
Most important part of the gẹlẹdẹ garment is the
head-dress or mask they place on top of their head,
the headdress is carefully and specially carved out
with soft wooden material, it has facial part which
depicts women face and the upper part is designed
and coloured to attract people. People take their time
to carve out the best each year and this period
marked the era of Art and craft revolution in
Yorubaland as people begin to contest in craft-works
and painting when gẹlẹdẹ festival is approaching.
This craft skills competition led to exhibition of craft-
works as part of the festival programmes in the
evening, people display their craft-works in the
public. Tourists from outside Yoruba communities
come to witness craft competition every year.
This festival fades away over a period of time and
today gẹlẹdẹ craft-works are mostly found as old
artefacts in some British and American museums.
Some organizations are also found online engaging
in the sales of these gẹlẹdẹ craft-works, the price
ranges from 2,500 to 20,000 US dollars per one
(roughly 375,000 to 3 million Nigerian naira),
depending on how old and how sophisticated it is.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) listed Gẹlẹdẹ festival as one
of the world traditional heritage that should be saved
from fading away because of its size, how it attracts
tourists, its involvement of human skill competitions
(craft-skills) and its purity as it does not involve
human sacrifice. UNESCO also planned out reviving
Gẹlẹdẹ groups, yearly exhibition of old craft-works