Ritual Purification

2 records filed under this subject

The Igue Festival: History, Rituals, and Meaning in the Benin Kingdom

The Igue Festival is the most important traditional and royal celebration of the Benin Kingdom. Observed annually in Benin City (Edo State, Nigeria), the festival is simultaneously a spiritual cleansing, a thanksgiving ceremony, a renewal of the Oba’s power, and a collective reaffirmation of identity for the Edo people. It blends ancestral veneration, masquerade,…

Duein Fubara: The Ancestor Screen and the Cult of the Forehead

Among the Ijo (Ijaw) peoples of the Niger Delta, the Duein Fubara stands out as one of the most important sacred objects linking the living to their ancestors. While to an outsider it may appear to be a carved wooden panel, within Ijo cosmology the Duein Fubara is a spiritual device, an embodiment of…