Celebrating the Incarnates of Ancient Cults: The Structure, Hierarchy and Management of the Egungun and Sangotimi Festivals of Ede Land

Modern corporate management styles appear to undermine the traditional but highly organized management system of indigenous African festivals. Despite lacking organized schools or training outfits, or profit oriented drive, traditional institutions such as the Egungun cults present in Yorubaland have survived through convention and long history of an ancient cult management system. However, little is known of its link and attachment to royalty on which the kingship, culture, and tradition of the people revolve. The Yoruba people are a major ethnic tribe domiciled in the western region of Nigeria, West Africa. This paper examines the Egungun and Sangotimi festivals of an ancient Yoruba town, Ede as performances, with an emphasis on the history, structure, hierarchy, and administration of the cyclic ritual, providing an action plan in terms of committee set-up, publicity and media coverage. The study adopted an empirical approach through personal interviews with heads of guilds, community leaders, members of royal descent, and library sources to assert that the modern celebration of Egugun festivals is based on the inherited ancient structure established by the people’s ancestors and whose management approaches are in tandem with basic management principles.