Porto-Novo Mask Festival — Egungun, Zangbeto, Guèlèdè, five days around the masks of July

Tradition 1 — Yoruba-Nago lineage

Egungun — the ancestors who return

Egungun is a Yoruba-Nago tradition centered on the ritual visitation of ancestors. The mask is not a representation. It is the temporary embodiment of an ancestral spirit who has been called to return for a specific moment. The masquer underneath is not the ancestor. The moment of the mask's appearance is. Egungun societies are organised around lineages, each maintaining its specific ancestors and their distinctive ensembles — voluminous fabric layers, hand-stitched panels accumulated over generations, sometimes weighing more than 30 kilograms.

The Egungun appearances at the Porto-Novo Mask Festival are typically the festival's emotional centre — a long procession at dusk on day one, individual ancestor visitations to specific concessions on day two. The voice of the ancestor speaks in a deep, modified register. Only initiated members of the Egungun society address the ancestor directly.

Tradition 2 — Goun-Fon lineage

Zangbeto — the watchers of the night

Zangbeto is a Goun-Fon tradition specific to the coastal areas of Benin and Togo. Where Egungun reaches back to ancestors, Zangbeto reaches across to the night itself — the masks are the watchmen of the night, conceived as autonomous beings who patrol communities, identify wrongdoing, and protect against witchcraft. The Zangbeto mask is a tall, dome-shaped raffia structure that spins continuously, its movement said to be the spirit's own. No human is visible underneath.

A signature Zangbeto demonstration involves the mask spinning, then being briefly lifted to show that the space underneath is empty — the demonstration is itself a moment of cosmological assertion. The Zangbeto societies at the festival come from Porto-Novo and the surrounding Mono region. Performances are typically scheduled at dusk on both festival days, around 6 to 7pm.

Tradition 3 — Yoruba lineage · UNESCO 2008

Guèlèdè — UNESCO, satire, matrilineage

Guèlèdè (sometimes spelled Gelede) is a Yoruba tradition recognised by UNESCO in 2008 as part of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (jointly inscribed for Benin, Nigeria, and Togo). It is the only mask tradition at the Festival des Masques with this institutional recognition.

Guèlèdè honours the spiritual power of women — particularly elderly women and ancestral mothers, the Ìyá-mi — and the masquerades are conceived as social commentary. The masks themselves are smaller and carved in wood, often depicting recognisable scenes from contemporary life — a market vendor, a corrupt official, a phone-obsessed teenager — performed with humour, exaggeration, and pointed satire. The Guèlèdè performance is a public moral discussion conducted through dance.

The UNESCO inscription mentions Guèlèdè as "a celebration of women in their roles as mothers, daughters, sisters, and elders" and recognises its function as a community accountability mechanism. Porto-Novo is one of the major centres of Guèlèdè practice. The festival typically features two Guèlèdè performances over its two days.

Tradition 4 — Yoruba lineage · festive register

Gunuko — the festive register

Gunuko is the lighter register of the festival — a Yoruba tradition associated with celebration and divertissement rather than ancestor cult or social satire. The masks are colourful, often acrobatic, with performers executing rapid spinning and jumping movements. Gunuko opens and closes festival sessions, providing the joyful frame around the heavier Egungun and Guèlèdè performances.