valor in creating positive environments for the
living. The Epa masks show a man and a woman,
normally a great soldier and a great queen or
priestess, iyalashe, mother power.
Almost all festivals among West Africans have
an ancestral character. The idea of celebration is
to honor something that is important, and nothing
is more authentic for the ethnic group than the
celebration of the ancestors. Every major celebra-
tion is tied to the respect and honor that the living
persons are supposed to give for the ancestors
(egungun). How can a society be ordered, bal-
anced, and productive without deference to those
who have created the lineage?
Often the large Epa masks, usually two, are
richly decorated with examples of the deeds done
by the particular ancestors. Thus, a warrior’s
mask would have his weapons and other accou-
trements that go with his profession. A mask of a
princess would have all the representations of her
power, examples of harvest of grain, fruits, and
vegetables representing her spiritual potency. This
is the way that the people are reminded of their
greatness, their traditions, and their possibilities.
The awe-inspiring Epa masks are known
throughout Yoruba. The Iyalashe mask repre-
sents all the women of Ekiti and is depicted with
several royal images and figures dressed in high-
crested African coiffures. There is also an image
of the princess or queen with a shawl over her
shoulders while the left hand is free to carry out
the ritual practices. In some versions, the princess
or mother is in the center of a circular platform
and is surrounded by drummers, horn players,
messengers, and others with their children. Each
dancer wears the pot-like or helmet-like masks
with honor. It is called theikokoand refers to the
power that is transmitted to the dancer from the
ancestral world. The face (igi) of the mask is
understood as the physical world. Therefore, the
dancer is carrying the entire community on his
head when he is dancing the dance of the
Iyalashe. The same is said for the dancer for the
male figure. Nothing escapes the most precise
representations in the society. Epa is, in effect, the
heart of Yoruba.
Molefi Kete AsanteSeealsoAncestors; Rituals
Further Readings
Arinze, F. A. (1970).Sacrifice in Ibo Religion. Ibadan,
Nigeria: Ibadan University Press.
Armstrong, R. G. (1975). African Religion and Cultural
Renewal.Orita, 9 , 109–132.
Asante, M., & Abarry, A. (1996).African Intellectual
Heritage.Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Awolalu, J. O. (1968).Aiyélála—A Guardian of Social
Morality.Orita, 2 , 79–90.
Awolalu, J. O. (1973). Yoruba Sacrificial Practice.
Journal of Religion in Africa, 5 , 81–93.
Awolalu, J. O. (1979).Yoruba Beliefs and Sacrificial
Rites. New York: Longman.
Awolalu, J. O. (1981). Continuity and Discontinuity in
African Religion: The Yoruba Experience.Orita,
13 , 3–20.
Awolalu, J. O. (1987). Scape-Goatism in Yoruba
Religion.Orita, 19 , 3–9.
Awolalu, J. O., & Dopamu, P. A. (1979).West African
Traditional Religion, Ibadan, 1979.
Babalola, E. O. (1991). The Reality of African
Traditional Religion: A Yoruba Case Study.The
Nigerian Journal of Theology, 6 , 50–63.
Babalola, E. O. (1992). The Significance of Yoruba Songs
in the Study of African Traditional Religion: The Owo
Experience.The Living Word, 98 , 452–462.
Biobaku, S. (1955). The Use and Interpretation of
Yoruba Myths.Odu, 1 , 21–35.EPISTEMOLOGY
Epistemology deals with questions such as, “How
did the universe come into existence?” “Where do
human beings come from?” “Does God exist?”
“Is there life after death?” “How should one live
in order to join the village of the ancestors?”
“What does it mean to be a good human being?”
These types of questions stand at the core of
African religious worldview and suggest that
knowledge is an important component of religion.
Confronted with the thorniest questions of
human destiny in the midst of a mysterious
universe, Africans have developed since time
immemorial a complex epistemology that enabled
them to find satisfactory answers. These African
ways of knowing are grounded in African reli-
gious traditions, especially in creation myths.
Despite the idiosyncrasy of particular religious242 Epistemology