Yoruba Ritual Archive

An Appendix to

The material contained on this website represents segments of three orisha festivals in Ayede-Ekiti in Ondo State, Nigeria, which I video recorded in 1990 and 1993. My intimacy with the priests and priestesses in Ayede developed over two years of fieldwork from 1983-85, when I conducted dissertation research and served my Yoruba apprenticeship. In the 1980’s I used a camera and tape recorder to collect data on ritual performances, and focused on the relation of the orisha cults to political cleavages and contests for power within Ayede and the surrounding kingdoms of Ishan and Itaji. When I returned in the 1990’s, I was a "son of the soil" (omo ilè), and given free rein with a video camera. The following video clips represent a level of access and trust that developed over a decade.

The video clips were selected from over forty hours of unedited recordings, with two basic goals in mind. The first is simply to highlight critical moments of passage and empowerment in the ritual process, crossing key thresholds from bush to town, between political jurisdictions within Ayede, between the ritual jurisdictions of the dominant orisha cults, and moments of synthesis in the market and palace. The second goal is to identify comparable moments in the public performances of Orisha Ojuna, Yemoja, and Orisha Iyagba. Each folder of clips corresponds to one of the three dominant Orisha cults on its corresponding Day of Carrying Water, in order to highlight the denouement of each festival and its processual form. I have not included the scenes from the considerable ritual activity preceding and following these days, but have plans to produce a richer database with such material in the future.

As an appendix to my book Black Critics and Kings: The Hermeneutics of Power in Yoruba Society (University of Chicago Press, 1992), the website is offered to deepen the analyses of ritual organization and practice in chapters 2, 4, 5 and 6. It can be used in relation to the book, or independently as an ethnographic resource. To provide greater and more immediate context for each clip, Mr. Olu Ibitoye, my main research assistant in Ayede wrote "liner notes" to explicate the action. These notes are ethnographic gems of insight unto themselves, representing the deep understanding of an indigenous voice. The clips were captured and rendered by Kye Tiernan. The website was designed and constructed by Hannah Anderson. Generous support was provided by the Provost’s Program for Academic Technology Innovation, University of Chicago, 1998-2000.

Finally, as a preliminary exploration of the possibilities offered by hyperethnography, this video archive is offered as an example of how digital media can enhance doctoral dissertations and monographs. Our goal is to extend the range of materials offered by a book without challenging the genre itself. Technical concerns have been kept to a minimum to keep ideas, not technology, at the forefront of research.