Volume 14, Issue 1, 2023
Kayode Joseph Onipede
Pages 68-95
https://doi.org/10.5840/asrr2023103103
Orara: Rituals of Rule, Spiritism, and Popular Culture in Oye¨CEkiti, Southwest Nigeria
This article discusses Orara, a religious festival in Oye-Ekiti which is lacking in scholarly attention. Orara was conceived to appease the spirits and pray to Olodumare through rituals and public performances. The study used sociology, ethnography, anthropology, and historical research methodologies to elicit data. These include primary and secondary sources. The primary data included oral tradition, participant observation, in-situ field notes (i.e., record?ing immediately after observations of events), conversations and interviews, and photographs of the embodied experience of the festival and survey. Secondary sources comprised journal articles, textbooks, and other relevant documents. Using qualitatively analysis, the study engaged Victor Turner¡¯s theory of per?formance in explaining the functionality of Orara in enabling social order in Oye-Ekiti society.