"#WhiteLagos: A Definitive and Visual Guide to the Eyo Festival" was published in May 2017, when Lagos State (Western Nigeria) celebrated its golden jubilee and with the support of the Lagos State government. In this short clip, I share a backstory of how it came to be published.
The #EyoFestival is the cultural alter ego of Lagos, celebrated mainly in memory of a Lagosian who, while alive, contributed to the growth and development of the state. On another level, it is hosted to honour a highly placed visitor or to mark an important milestone, which is the case this time around.
A look at the Lagos@50 logo shows that it includes the Opambata (Staff) and Aga (Hat), both of which are key elements of the Eyo clothing. When held, the festival is usually a pageant of colours invigorated by the energy of the masquerades, all dressed in flowing white garments. To quote the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO): “The Lagos Eyo gives good meaning to the words ‘festival’ and ‘spectacle’.”
According to a key member of the anniversary planning committee: “The Eyo day is always a day of pageantry and gaiety in Lagos Island. The day is the climax of a series of events, which by tradition herald the advent of the play and has – on that day – Lagos Island agog with millions of spectators, watching resplendently dressed masquerades parading the major streets of #IsaleEko.
And though it is a day-long event that the public sees, the festival is actually preceded by many days of systematic preparations, planning and eventual performance, all involving the Isale Eko community of Lagos Island where the festival is domiciled, the Oba of Lagos, all the white-cap chiefs, heads of families and entire households within and outside the nation.
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