The Eyo Festival play is a festival of joy, a celebration of life over death. Above all, it is a final burial rite for those who have contributed to the enrichment of life in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. It is a resurrection of some sort. As is well known, the Eyo fraternity is the contribution of Lagosians to the general culture of the Yoruba of western Nigeria, and by extension to the human culture, world-wide.

The Eyo festival, also known as Adamu Orisa, is a staged play, a traditional stage play of Lagos. The play, or festival lasts all day, and it is staged as the final funeral celebration of a king, or chief, and in honor and memory of a deceased eminent Lagosian, who has contributed to the progress and development of Lagos during his or her lifetime. The festival is only staged for this reason. Today the Play retains in its entirety the richness of the culture, which it depicts. It constitutes the highest honor that Lagos could repay for eminence and illustriousness. The performers themselves derive considerable ecstasy from their style of movement, dancing and acrobatic displays; these need a considerable amount of physical strength and mental alertness and it is a treat to watch a trained Eyo perform his wiles.

The Eyo masquerade wields a staff, which is called Opambata, which he uses and manipulates with peculiar skill and agility and only occasionally employs it to beat an erring bystander. He wears a headgear, which is artfully and expensively designed and created and distinctly decorated. This is called the Aga and except for the ceremonial groups like the Eyo Omo’oloku or the Eyo Fancy, the attire of the Eyo masquerade is white shirting or white poplin. The Eyo also wears a facemask of lace or other transparent material and this helps to obscure the person, the masker. Various Eyo Groups have various catch-words, and apart from the Orisha (fetish) Groups like the Adimu, the Alakete-pupa, the Oniko (raffia), the Ologede (banana) and the Agere (stilts), all other Eyo Groups must belong to a ruling house or Chieftaincy Family house. None others are allowed to set up Eyo Group outside these categories and it is illegal to do so. The Eyo masquerade speaks with a ventriloquial voice, suggesting that he was not human and also that he represents the spirit of a departed person. The Yorubas, perhaps like the majority of mankind, very much believe in the reincarnation of the spirit of their loved deceased ones. They believe that the spirits of their departed ancestors or indeed compeers are always with them and at all times ready to strike in order to protect them. The Eyo symbolizes the arrival on earth of this spirit, and whenever you meet an Eyo and greet him with the word – AGOGORO EYO! He is expected to answer – MO YO FUN’E MO YO FUN’RA MI! The words of salutation translate thus – what a tall and imposing Eyo! And the response – I rejoice with you (for seeing this day) and rejoice with myself. The day of performance is always a day of pageantry and gaiety in Lagos Island. That day is the climax of a series of events which by tradition herald the advent of the Play and on that day the whole of Lagos goes agog and thousands of people, maskers as well as onlookers throng the streets. About the middle of the day the various Eyo Groups parade through the Nnamdi Azikwe Street which literally divides Lagos Island into two. The various groups then pass through the grandstands at Idumota Square, Lagos, where an elegant statue of the Eyo has now been erected and installed by the Lagos State Government. After passing through these stands the groups do not get back into town any longer but are free to roam about the areas of the stands.

These ceremonial parades are a rich spectacle of excellent and dexterous displays of all that there is to display. The guests who have come to watch the parades are elegantly dressed and attired. The Eyo masquerades at their best seem at this stage to be going home after another great day of performance and undoubtedly wish to themselves yet another opportunity of being a part of a great performance. Those who watch the performance are fastly glued down to their seats as they watch the various and varied scene, each one striving to excel the other in exuberant gaiety. It is indeed a fantastic and incredible spectacle of wealth, health, pride, splendor, pageantry, color, strength, agility and all there is to show. And when the guests must depart, as they ought to do any way, they carry with them the indelible memories firstly of a day of the most fantastic performance which they had seen, secondly, an elaborate scene of unparalleled resplendence which they saw and would vow to see again.