In 1974, the Atipako festival was already 150 years old. Celebrated annually, it was one of the most strictly observed Egungun r|tes in Ibadan and tied to the Alapini family.
However, that year, this Ibadan important traditional festivals went wrong, and people became uneasy and scared.
It was said that a part of the r|tual was the sacrificing of a dog to Ogun, the god of iron. And as tradition demands, the dog’s head was to be removed with a single clean cut. If it fails, the god is believed not to have accepted.
That year, the man wielding the cutlass showed up, made some displays before the crowd which cheered him on, raised the cutlass up and with one strong energy, brought it down on the dog’s neck. He missed it. It was not a clean cut and the dog’s head did not remove.
The once excited crowd went cold. Confusion. Custom forbade a second attempt. So they couldn’t have thought about it.
Though that part went wrong, the festival continued as planned, but with some anxiety. Nobody knew what could happen before the next Atipako festival as a consequence of that miss.
Check on sources about the Atipako festival only describes the r|tual itself without mentioning a specific consequence for missing the clean one-blow cut.
Thus, it is difficult to say what the consequences of that year’s festival was.
We wish to hear from anyone who knew about the event concerning how it ended.
More information from Drum Newspaper.
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