Notes

‘It is the aso [cloth] we should greet before greeting the wearer.’¹

If, as the Yoruba saying suggests, the aso (the cloth or the clothes) should be greeted before the wearer due to the extreme importance of cloth in Yoruba culture, then who or what performs the role of the ‘sitter’ in Agbodjélou’s contemporary Egungun portraits: the figures or the cloth itself? ²

The Egungun Masquerades series depicts incarnations of the Yoruba peoples’ ancestral forebears, who appear at funerals and annual festivals in ritualised parades, magical feats and colourful pageantry. In these photographs, Agbodjélou explores the complex role of the Egungun, capturing both their individual personalities and mannerisms, while emphasising their unequivocal presence as enigmatic spiritual manifestations.³

1. Rowland Abiodun refers to ‘the deathlessness of cloth’ in his discussion of the importance of cloth (aso) to Yoruba culture. See Joanne B. Eicher and Doran H. Ross. (eds) (2010) The Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Volume 1: Africa, Oxford: Berg Publishers. Page 98.
2. Ruth Simbao. (2015) ‘Portraits of ‘The Deathlessness of Cloth’: Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou’s Egungun Masquerades series, [Online] Available: https://www.ru.ac.za/ media/rhodesuniversity/content/ruthsimbao/ documents/writingreviewsthinkpieces/ Portraits_of_the_deathlessness_of_cloth.pdf [17 December 2018].
3. SMAC Gallery. (2018) Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou, Egungun Masquerades, [Online] Available: https://smacgallery.com/exhibition/ leonce-raphael-agbodjelou-egungunmas querades-03-09-15-17-10-15/ [4 December 2018].leonce-raphael-agbodjelou-egungunmasquerades- 03-09-15-17-10-15/ [4 December 2018].

Exhibited

SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou: Egungun Masquerades, 3 September to 13 October 2015.