Few words in the Afro-Brazilian vocabulary carry as many misunderstandings as egum. Many people hear the term and think of something bad, an encosto, a spirit that hinders someone's life.
That is not it. Egum is the dead, the ancestor, and the organized worship of this ancestry is one of the oldest and most preserved religious traditions in Brazil. This guide explains what it is, who leads it, and why it exists separately from the worship of the orixás.
Egum is not a bad spirit
The first step is to undo the vocabulary confusion, because it comes from outside of Candomblé.
In Kardecist Spiritism, there is talk of the disincarnate spirit, obsession, and desobsessão sessions. These are concepts from another tradition, with another cosmology. Egum is not an obsessing spirit, does not go through reincarnation in that sense, and is not an object of spiritual treatment.
In the Yoruba worldview, the egum is simply someone who has already died. And the worshiped ancestor is a moral authority of the community, respected as the oldest people are respected in life.
Worshiping ancestors is not an exotic or somber practice. It is one of the most common things in human history, and in Candomblé it has its own name, house, and priesthood.
Egum, Babá Egungun and ará-orum: who is who
The vocabulary has layers, and mixing them is what creates confusion.
- Aiyê: the world of the living.
- Orum: the spiritual world, where those who die go.
- Ará-orum: inhabitant of the orum, in other words, those who have already passed.
- Egum: the dead in a broad sense, any person who has departed, without an established individual cult.
- Babá Egungun: the illustrious male ancestor, prepared by specific rites to be invoked and worshiped.
The difference between the last two is the heart of the matter. Not every egum is Babá Egungun. The Babá is the ancestor that the community chose to worship and made to be born ritually for the cult, which requires foundation, a house, and a priest.
This cult belongs to the ketu/nagô matrix, of Yoruba origin in the Oyó region. The jeje and angola nations treat ancestry through their own paths, with other names and another liturgy, as shown in the article about the nações do candomblé. They are not equivalencies.
Why the cult remains separate from the worship of the orixás
This separation is often read as fear or danger. It is not. It is a difference of category.
Orixá is a force of nature and a divinized ancestor. Egum is the dead. They are distinct orders of existence, and each requires its own liturgy, its own calendar, and its own priesthood.
For this reason, the cult takes place in specific houses, the Ilê Egum, led by priests who are not the babalorixás and ialorixás of the candomblé of orixá. The hierarchy is parallel and independent of that described in roles and hierarchy in candomblé.
There is also a difference in access. The orixá festival has a public part, with the barracão open and visitors. The Babá's departure is surrounded by restricted protocol, and much of what happens is reserved for the initiated.
It is worth noting this with honesty: much of the cult is not public information, and this text does not fill these gaps with invention.
The ojé, the ixan, and the eku
The one who leads the worship is the ojé, the priest initiated with the complete rites. Above him are the alagbá, head of an egum terreiro, and the alapini, supreme priest of the worship in Brazil.
Other positions organize the ritual work:
- Amuixã: initiated with rites still incomplete, without the power to invoke the ancestor.
- Atokun: the conductor of the Babá during the exit.
- Alagbê: the one responsible for the drum, as in the toque of atabaques.
Two objects are central. The ixan is the ritual staff of the ojé, struck on the ground with words and gestures that call and command the ancestor. It also maintains the physical distance between the Babá and those present. The eku, also called axó, is the liturgical garment of embroidered layers that covers the entire body.
Here is the most important and least publicized information on the subject. The Babá Egungun does not incorporate. He materializes through the sacred garment and speaks with the living from it, which structurally separates this worship from the trance of possession in the Candomblé of orixá. Touching the eku is a serious offense.
And the women? They have their own essential positions, such as iyalodê, iyá egbé, erelu, and the atós, worshipers of the egum. What the woman does not receive is the ojé initiation. The reason lies in the Yoruba division between male ancestry, of the Egungun, and female ancestry, of the Gèlèdé.
The Gèlèdé worships the Iyá Mi Agbá, the ancestral mothers, condensed in the figure of Iyá Nlá. There, the strength is collective, and not individual as in the worship of the Babá. UNESCO recognized the Gèlèdé oral heritage as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Itaparica: where the worship survived in Brazil
If the Egungun worship arrived intact in Brazil, it was because of an island.
Oral tradition and the network of terreiros place the arrival at the beginning of the 19th century. The inaugural houses are all on Itaparica Island, in Bahia:
- Vera Cruz, dated around 1820
- Mocambo, from the 19th century, linked to assentamentos brought from Lagos
- Encarnação, around 1840
- Tuntun, around 1850, the only one of the inaugural houses still in operation
The best known house is Omo Ilê Agboulá, founded in 1934 in Ponta de Areia. The worship has its own calendar, and does not follow November 2, as shown in the guide for All Souls' Day in Umbanda. In 2015, the IPHAN Advisory Council decided on the heritage listing, and the inscription in the Livro do Tombo is from 2017, as shown in the text about the terreiros listed by IPHAN. The Rede de Terreiros Egùngùn brings together the chronology of these houses told by the terreiros themselves.
Survival was costly. Researcher Fábio Velame, from UFBA, describes three cycles of threat to the worship. First came the police repression of the first decades of the 20th century. Then, the real estate pressure on the island starting in the 1960s. Today, religious intolerance.
Itaparica also holds another tradition of black ancestry and memory, the Festa da Boa Morte, in the Recôncavo.
Egum, axexê and ori: what changes in each one
There are three concepts that the reader usually mixes up, and the difference is simple.
| Concept | What is it | When it happens |
|---|---|---|
| Axexê | Funeral rite that undoes the bonds of the deceased with the aiyê | Once, immediately after death |
| Culto de egum | Continued worship of the ancestor already prepared | In a cycle, for generations |
| Ori | The spiritual head of those who are alive, the individual destiny | Throughout life |
The axexê concludes; the Egungun worship perpetuates. And the ori has no relation to any death. The funeral rite is explained in what is axexê.
In tradition, it is also told that Oyá, the orixá that Brazil knows as Iansã, is the only one who travels in the universe of the eguns, in the quality of Oyá Igbalé. This comes from the mythological body of the orixá candomblé and is narrated this way by the houses.
Frequently asked questions
What is egum in Candomblé?
Egum is the deceased, who left the aiyê and began to inhabit the orum. When this ancestor receives specific rites and begins to be worshiped by the community, he is called Babá Egungun. The worship is of ketu and nagô matrix, with separate priesthood and houses.
What is the difference between egum and orixá?
Orixá is a force of nature and a divinized ancestor, worshipped in the barracão with a trance of possession. Egum is the deceased, worshipped in a separate house, where the Babá presents himself dressed in the eku and does not incorporate into anyone. They are distinct categories of the Yoruba worldview.
Why is the worship of eguns done in a separate house?
Because orixá and the deceased belong to different orders of existence, each with its own liturgy, calendar, and priesthood. It is not a question of danger, but of ritual separation. An orixá house does not become an egum house, and the opposite does not happen either.
Who is the ojé and what does he do?
The ojé is the initiated priest of the Egungun worship, with the complete rites. He invokes and conducts the Babá using the ixan, the ritual staff. Above him are the alagbá, the head of the egum terreiro, and the alapini, the supreme priest of the worship in Brazil.
Can a woman be initiated in the Egungun worship?
Women have their own indispensable roles, such as iyalodê, iyá egbé, erelu, and the atós. What she does not receive is the initiation of ojé. Female ancestry has its own worship in the Yoruba tradition, the Gèlèdé, dedicated to the Iyá Mi.
Where to buy Candomblé religious items
At Joia Mística Laroyê, you find religious items for your home and for your studies:
- White and seven-day candles: for firming and for the altar
- Incenses and fumigators: lavender, myrrh, benzoin, and dried herbs
- Beads and bead strings: assembled by orixá and by nation
- Alguidares, quartinhas, and clay pottery: ritual use pieces
- Books and study material: about orixás, nations, and Afro-Brazilian tradition
Visit our shop in Extrema, Minas Gerais or talk to us via WhatsApp with delivery to all of Brazil.
Foundational matters are learned in the terreiro, with those who have obrigação and responsibility. This text is study material, and not practical guidance.
References
- Juana Elbein dos Santos: Os Nàgô e a Morte, a reference work on pàdè, àsèsè, and the egún cult in Bahia
- ABPN Magazine: article by Fábio Velame about the Egúngún cult in Brazil and the history of Omo Ilê Agboulá
- Art and Anthropology Notebooks: research by Andréa D’Amato on photography and ancestry in Omo Ilê Agboulá
- Rede de Terreiros Egùngùn: chronology of the Itaparica houses told by the terreiros themselves
- UNESCO: registration of the Gèlèdé oral heritage as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
