₦airaland Forum

For me the iconic carnival colours have always been the green and gold of Campos Square (the Brazilians) and the red and white of Lafiagi. These districts have had these colours as far back as I can remember. I don't know how the other districts got their colours.

You can see more Carnival 2012 pictures here https://www.nairaland.com/910344/easter-monday-pictures-lagos-carnival

naijababe: Thank you for the Gelede pictures. I can't tell you how much of my time I spent watching Gelede as a child, no one has time for such things anymore , thanks to the arabs and jews

My pleasure

[size=14pt]Gelede[/size]

Gelede is an annual festival honouring “our mothers” (awon iya wa), not so much for their motherhood, but as female elders. It takes place when the dry season ends (March–May) among the Yoruba people of south-west Nigeria and neighbouring southeast Benin.

The celebration is recognizing the power and spiritual capacity women have in society. The performances are given by men, wearing masks that feature sculpted images on it, These scenes can be of animals and people or sewing machines and drums. The mask is one of a pair worn together by men masquerading as women to amuse, please and placate the mothers who are considered very powerful, and whom may use their powers for good or destructive purposes. These powers are especially linked to childbirth. The abilities they possess may be activated either consciously or unconsciously. Because of the Gelede performance, the community as a whole can acknowledge the power held by women.[1]

The Gelede ceremony involves carefully choreographed dance, singing and music, and especially drumming. Dozens of masquerading pairs may take part. The daytime festival is held in the marketplace, and is preceded the night before by an Efe ceremony at which male masks are used by ‘jesters’ who make satirical performances including social comment.

Gelede probably originated in the late 18th or early 19th century. It may be associated with the change from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society, but then one might expect it to have older beginnings.

The Gelede ceremony may also take place at the funerals of cult members or in times of drought or other serious situations which are thought to have been brought about by malevolent witchcraft.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelede

Please delete the illegal and disgusting photo on this thread
https://www.nairaland.com/1099877/photo-baby-sucking-adult-manhood

The Lagos Carnival is part of the Lagos Black Heritage Festival. Events of the Black Heritage Festival include a water regatta, gathering of masquerades from across South West Nigeria, art exhibition and events at the Badagry Slave Port and the Freedom Park on Broad Street.

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RRS

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The Dragon

The costumes are made by people from the Lagos State Skills Acquisition Centre and are given to participants for free (sponsors cover the cost).

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Swan

A new innovation was added to the celebration of carnival with the introduction of the junior carnival. Primary and Secondary schools on Lagos Island are invited to send students to represent their schools at the junior carnival.

The procession usually kicks off at the Tafawa Balewa Square. Some floats then proceed along Awolowo Road up to Falomo Roundabout and back to Tafawa Balewa Square. Another kick off point is Campos Square on Lagos Island. Celebrants parade down Igbosere Road, Broad Street, Catholic Mission Street, Marina Street and on to Tafawa Balewa Square. Some floats go through Ozumba Mbadiwe Road and Ahmadu Bello Way on Victoria Island on their way to the Tafawa Balewa Square.

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Bumblebee

Actually, street trading and hawking has been illegal since at least the 1970s, under the Lagos State sanitation law (amended in 2000 [Kai amendment], 2005 [rehabilitation/repatriation amendment], etc).

naijababe: ain't that Agemo? I was hoping you'd feature Gelede at some point

Gosh! Thank you for reminding me. I took pictures of Gelede at the carnival. I planned to post them, but I've forgotten.

Government agencies such as LASTMA, LASAMBUS, RRS, Operation Mesa, Neighbourhood Watch, etc are fully mobilised to ensure that the event is hitch free. Corporate bodies are involved in sponsoring segments of the carnival, with some providing free food, drinks and souvenirs for celebrants. BRT buses convey members of the public to the Tafawa Balewa Square free of charge. There are also open top double-decker buses that give tourists a great view of the festivities. Famous musicians such as 9ice also perform at the carnival.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/677276_free20BRT_jpg06dbf2da5449afbddb4abebc515af6b1
BRT (free Lagbus rides).

The carnival was a time of fun, laughter and merriment. However, from the 1970s to the early 2000s, the great Lagos festivals of Carnival, Eyo and Egungun were marred by violence between youths from different sections of Lagos or groups of masquerades. These festivals became synonymous with injury, destruction and death.

The Lagos State Government, headed by Babatunde Fashola, decided to get involved in organising the Carnival and Eyo Festival in order to ensure that activities are conducted in a safe and secure environment and that it serves as a means to attract tourists to the state. Government involvement has returned the carnival and eyo festival to what they were known for; laughter, music, dancing and merriment.

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Spidermobile

The carnival comes up three times in a year, Boxing Day, Easter Monday (the first celebration after Lent and Easter Sunday) and on New Years Day.

As time went on, the people living in Lafiaji area, also on Lagos Island, started participating in the carnival. Later still, other areas of Lagos, like Obalende, Surulere, Yaba, etc caught the carnival bug. Until recently, Lagos was the only part of Nigeria that hosted the carnival.

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There should be a nairaland button on this phone next year.

Fanti Carnival (also known as Caretta) was brought to Lagos Island by these Brazilians who settled around Campos area in Lagos State and on Lagos Island to be specific. It was introduced by the Da Souza and Kanaku families. The masked rider and the horse are aspects of Brazillian ranch life. Some of the men dress like cowboys and they are known as FASUTINI and they ride bicycles while their leader rides a horse.

It is important to stress that, in the early days women did not partake in the dressing up in masks and different clothing, but they were allowed to go around with the different actors.

[img]https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/677391_IMG00478-20120409-1025_jpg3391d0c771d589dfb7405d846706cb72[/img]

In the 1880s there were four distinct groups in Lagos – the Europeans, the educated Africans (Saros), the Brazilians and the indigenes. The town was physically divided into four quarters corresponding to these groups. The Europeans lived on the Marina, the Saros mainly west of the Europeans in an area called Olowogbowo, the Brazilians behind the Europeans – their quarter was known as Portuguese Town or Popo Aguda or Popo Maro – and the indigenes on the rest of the island – behind all three. By 1888 there were 3,221 Brazilians in Lagos. A prominent member of the Brazilian group was Placido Adeyemo Assumpçao who later changed his name to Adeyemo Alakija.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/677274_5677531802_f0b179abfe_jpgc71f5292e5e23c389beaffefe215817a

During the 1850’s there was a large influx into Lagos of educated Africans who had earlier been sold as slaves, from Sierra Leone, Brazil and Cuba. The Sierra Leonians were known as Akus or Saros, the Brazilians and Cubans as Agudas.

The Brazilian Carnival is one of the best-known celebrations today, but many cities and regions worldwide celebrate with large, popular, and days-long events. The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is the largest carnival in the world, according to the Guinness World Records, with two million people per day on the streets. The first festivals of Rio date back to 1723.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/677273_5676951105_3431aae1de_jpgace890a59760169cd2c123314c41c932
Lagos Carnival 2011

Meboi/Fanti/Carnival

Carnival is a festive season that occurs immediately before Lent (the last celebration before lent); the main events are usually during February. Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/677272_lagos20carnival202010_jpg20a215283de7928d4f095ce19bdfc36d

It's official. I hate the anti-spam bot.

I'll repost the carnival article, but this time I'll break it into many posts.

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Adamu Orisa Play (Eyo Festival)

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Eyo Festival 1910


There has never been any controversy that the Adamu Orisa Play is the highest and the richest cultural performance that Lagos can boast of and it is trite that none other has ever made any such claim. Chief Ajayi King (the Atigbale of Lagos) says that the Adamu Orisa Play was brought to Lagos from Iperu, which forms part of present day Ogun State in Nigeria. The staff of the Lagos State Council For Arts and Culture seem to disagree, for in a pamphlet produced by them, they state that “understandably, the origin as indeed the genesis of its public performances must be rooted in legend, but most sadly, these legends are completely lost to history. We are not able to find them although we have searched and better searched. Nor is there complete agreement upon the number of theories that tend to nail down somewhere the place or places of its ancestry. We know however that before authentic history took over, the Adamu Orisa play was being staged and played somewhere, sometime, but these known truisims consistently defy analysis or diagnosis. When Lagos proper started to know about the play, it was being staged by people who had come to Lagos to perform the play: as it was being staged only on the Agbadarigi (Badagry) market days, there has always been the suggestion that those who came to perform had also come to the market to do their trading as well. The point of performance was known as Oke-Ita (outside mount) and later students of geography have identified the spot to be lagoon end of Glover Road, Ikoyi. There the dramatis personae dried their nets and hung them before and after the performance”.

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Eyo Festival 1912


Remi Olajumoke states that “before 20th February, 1854, when the Adamu Orisa play was first staged on Lagos Island, the people of Lagos including the Obas of Lagos traveled outside Lagos Island to watch the performance. The first performance of February 1854 was in memory of the late Oba Akitoye of Lagos and since then, and for the past one hundred and sixty years, the play had been performed on Lagos Island”.

The Adamu Orisa Play is a traditional play of Lagos only and it must be performed only on Lagos Island and not to be extended to the mainland or anywhere else. The play is staged in memory of, and as part of the funeral obsequies of a renowned, illustrious and respected person. Remi Olajumoke writes further that “the records of performances show that during the years before the independence of Nigeria, the British Government accorded to the play its pristine dignity and pride of place and indeed whenever the government felt that it had been a long time since a performance took place, the government would seek to involve a performance in a national event, such as Red Cross day (3rd November 1917), Win-The-War fund launching (28th May 1944), royal visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to Nigeria (16th February 1956) etc”. Hence the day of staging of an Adamu Orisa play is significant both for the great occasion and for the relations and friends of the deceased person being honoured.

Officially there are five Orisha (fetish) groups involved in the Adamu Orisa play, the Adimu, the Laba, the Oniko (raffia), the Ologede (banana) and the Agere (stilts). Apart from these, there are several Eyo Iga belonging to the several chieftaincy families in Lagos.

[img]http://yeyeolade.files./2009/04/eyo-festival5.jpg?w=450[/img]

It is apposite to mention that the most senior and most revered of all the Orisas, Adimu, has as its custodians the descendants of Ologun Agan and the Igbesodi Chieftaincy families. The Adimu looks like an egungun masquerade, but its outfit is made of sack cloth which makes it look ugly and terrifying. It is fully charged with dangerous charms and people dare not meet it on the way. At the rituals, he weeps for the loss of the life of the illustrious son and conducts libation to the high gods. Its outing is between 4.00a.m. and 6.00a.m. in the morning. After this, the other Eyo masquerades are released unto the streets of Lagos Island.

The Eyo masquerade carries a special stick known as “Opambata” which they use to greet friends by touching them with it and unveiling after this for recognition. They speak with a ventriloquial voice, suggesting that they are not human and that they represent the spirit of the departed people. The yorubas, perhaps like the majority of mankind, very much believe in the re-incarnation of the spirits of their loved deceased ones. They believe that the spirits of their departed ancestors or indeed compeers are always with them and at all times ready to strike in order to protect them. The Eyo symbolises the arrival on earth of this spirit and whenever you meet an Eyo and greet him with the words “AGOGORO EYO” he is expected to answer “MO YO FUN’E, MO YO FUN’RA MI”. The words of salutation translated thus – “What a tall and imposing Eyo” and the response “I rejoice with you (for seeing this day) and I rejoice with myself” The Eyo performs the conviction that the contract between the living and the dead is real indeed.


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All members of the public are requested to respect the eyo players, the play being the only traditional play of Lagos, and whenever they meet the eyo they are required to remove their caps, headties, fold their umbrellas if they are carrying any, put away their pipes, cigarettes or cigars, dismount from their bicycles, autocycles or motorcycles and clear to a side of the road. As the day’s performance draws to an end, the Orisa Adimu walks through the major streets of Lagos Island, surrounded by thousands of its supporters and onlookers, saying prayers all the way for the deceased of the spectators and for the whole city of Lagos and Nigeria as a whole. The climax of this “day of days” ends when the Adimu and his group arrive at the grandstand at Idumota Square, one which Remi Olajumoke describes as “a scene of utmost splendour and delight”.

In the recent past ( '80s & '90s) the great Lagos festivals of Egungun, Eyo and carnival have been marred by violence between youth groups representing different neighbourhoods or masquerade groups. The state government has thus gotten involved in organising the Eyo Festival and Carnival in order to ensure that they are vilence free and tourist friendly (more on this in the carnival section).

The focal points for the Eyo Festival has traditionally been the Eyo Arcade at Idumota Square, the Iga Idungaran (when the masquerades come to pay homage to the Oba at the palace) aand City Hall (where the corpse of the deceased is laid in state). In recent times, to make the event more tourist friendly, the Lagos State Government has also made the Tafawa Balewa Square a focal point.

https://www.werunthings.net/wp-content/gallery/eyo2009/Eyo%20Festival%202009-11_1.jpg

Indigeneship, state creation, sharia, state police, revenue allocation, resource control, etc are you going to take part, or will you sit back and whine.

Lawmaker escapes lynching at Kano public hearing over poor representation.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/11/constitution-amendment-lawmaker-escapes-lynching-in-kano/

For me the important point and the reason I petitioned that this thread should get to the front page is....do you know when there'll be a public hearing in your locality/constituency? Do you know the venue of the hearing? Are you going to attend & vote?