A History of “Dancing Gods…” film project

In the spring of 1973, having just completed my PhD at Columbia University, I received a grant of $1000 from the Institute for Intercultural Studies, Inc., N.Y., to film the arts and culture of Ọ̀họ̀rí- and Ànàgó-Yorùbá people in Dahomey (now Republic of Bénin). I borrowed a Bolex 16mm camera with a Vario Switar lens and shoulder brace, purchased a suitcase-full of dry cell batteries, rolls of Kodachrome Color Negative film-7254, 20 reels of audio tape, an Uher 4000 Report L tape recorder, and flew to West Africa with my then wife and co-researcher Margaret Thompson Drewal.

Based in the town of Pọ̀bẹ́ during April/May 1973, I filmed a master sculptor (Ẹbọ́ṣègbè) at work (1994), his weaver wife (Ọmọ́lékan), various domestic arts, an Egúngún festival honoring ancestors, and six weekly ceremonies in honor of Ońdòó, Àrẹ́, and Èṣù-Ẹlẹ́gbáa. Working on a tight budget, we found accommodation with a friend, Laurier Nadeau (who contributed some photographs), and worked with research assistant Etienne Kúṣadé. I rented a small motorcycle and strapped the suitcase of batteries onto the back as we negotiated the rough, sandy, and muddy roads of eastern Dahomey between the Atlantic coast and Kétu to the north.

Returning to the USA after two months of research and filming to begin teaching at Cleveland State University in September 1973, I developed the color negative footage, made a positive B&W workprint, edited an initial version of the film of Ońdòó ceremonies, and submitted it for an Ohio Arts Council award. Unsuccessful with the grant, I put the film project on hold and Margaret published “Symbols of Possession: A Study of Movement and Regalia in an Anago-Yoruba Ceremony” (Dance Research Journal-CORD, Volume VII/2 Spring/Summer 1975).

It was after my filming that I learned from Pierre Fatumbi Verger (whom I had first met in Nigeria in 1970-71, and later in Brazil in 1974) that he had photographed this same Ońdòó ceremony in 1952 (According to files at his Foundation in Salvador, he made three trips to Pọ̀bẹ́, one in the early 1970s when he filmed. I have not been able to locate that footage). Many years later (2010), when Tom Joyce invited me to join his major exhibition and book project about the art of African blacksmiths, I thought of my Ońdòó footage and Verger’s photos. Verger published a few of his 1952 photographs in a short photo-essay (1981) presenting Ońdòó as a manifestation of Ògún, god of iron. As one of the curators/authors on Tom Joyce’s team (2019), I published a short, photo-essay on Ońdòó, associating him with Ògún and iron, as Verger had. At UW-Madison, my editor Aaron Granat utilized Communication Arts Department’s state-of-the-art Telecine to digitize the footage in 4K. My graduate student Ọládipúpọ̀ Oyělẹ́yẹ did the narration in English and Yorùbá in 2023-24, and colleague Lisa Earl Castillo (based in Salvador, Brazil) reviewed Verger Foundation publications, notes, and facilitated permissions for selected photographs to be incorporated into the film. I thought I had finally finished the film by mid-October 2024 and titled it: “Ògún’s Laughter is no Laughing Matter! -- Celebrating the God of Iron.”

Well, the laugh was on me!

On October 27, 2024, just before finalizing an enhanced version of the film, I heard via WhatsApp from Lisa. She had been trading messages with a friend and fellow researcher, Nathan Lugo, who happened to be in Pọ̀bẹ́ and Kétu at the time. She wrote, “there is what I think some very big news…in both places [Pọ̀bẹ́ and Kétu]… the Ondo priests deny that Ondo is Ogun…they told him [Nathan] that Ondo is Oranyan” [Ọ̀rányàn / Ọ̀rànmíyàn -- a deified prince of Ọ̀yọ́]. Lisa also found that Verger in his first publication about his research (1957) did not mention Ońdòó in his chapter on Ògún. Lisa also found that in an article written with Roger Bastide (1968), they described “a new yam ritual involving Ondo, without mentioning an Ogun connection. In fact, all the paper said was that ‘some informants say that Ondo is Oranyan,’ and just leaves it at that!” Lisa sent me a copy of some Verger hand- written notes (undated) that also raised a question about the identification of Ońdòó with Ògún and Ọ̀rányàn (“Ondo c’est le même chose que Oraniyâ…”). At the same time, Nathan was interviewing and recording oral traditions from priests of Ońdòó in both Pọ̀bẹ́ and Kétu that repeated Ońdòó’s connection with Ọ̀rányàn and sent me a video and a series of audio clips from his Pọ̀bẹ́ colleagues pronouncing and confirming Ońdòó’s connection with Ọ̀rányàn.

Nathan suggested I contact Brian C. Smithson, an anthropologist who has worked in Pọ̀bẹ́. The question of orthography arose. Brian wrote me saying: “…I went with Òndò (Do Re Do)”. Some at Pọ̀bẹ́ confirmed this pronunciation, but others differed. One suggested Òhundò. After Nathan shared his audio and video clips with him, Brian concurred with the rendering of Ońdòó. With all these multiple sources of good information and advice from Nathan and Brian I am using Ońdòó in the film.

We all agreed that Ońdòó’s identification with Ògún was problematic and based on Verger’s notes, 1968 publication, Nathan’s and Brian’s precise and on-going work with Béninois colleagues, everything points to Ońdòó’s association with Ọ̀rányàn (Ọ̀rànmíyàn). As a result of this revelation, I revised and updated the film using only the name of Ońdòó and re-titling the film “Dancing Gods: Celebrating Ońdòó, Àrẹ́, and Èṣù-Ẹlẹ́gbáa in Pọ̀bẹ́, Bénin. I give thanks for the diligence, persistence, and collaborative spirit of my colleagues, Lisa, Nathan, Brian, and their Béninois colleagues (Isà Ońdòó, Awourela Gbafo Osa, Gbàfóìṣà Romain Abíálà, Gérard Koukpohounsi, Issiaka Ganiou) who have shared their perspectives and information in this on-going learning process. All of this has reminded me of the wisdom in one of my favorite Yorùbá proverbs: “It is more than seven that follows six!”

References:

Drewal, H. J. 1994. African Artistry: Technique and Aesthetics of the Yoruba Master Sculptor Ebo Ṣegbe. (13-mins, 16mm with narration).

Joyce, T. et al. 2019. Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths (Fowler Museum-UCLA and University of Washington Press).

Smithson, B. 2021. “Sounding the voice of tolerance: the Orò secret society at the Yorùbá Borderlands,” Material Religion, 17:4, 517-538.

Verger, P. 1957. Notes sur le culte des orisa et vodun à Bahia, la Baie de Tous les Saints, auBrésil et à l'ancienne Côte des Esclaves en Afrique, in the series Memoires de l’InstitutFrançais de l’Afrique Noir.

Verger, P. 1981. Orixas. Corrupio, pp.86-107.

Verger, P. and Bastide, R. 1968. “Uma festa dos inhames novos em Pobé,” Revista Etnografia, no. 18 (Lisboa).