In the first few weeks of March 2020, the word #egungunbecareful trended on twitter. Like a bush fire, this phrase associated with the artist Abass Akande Obesere – a veteran Fuji icon – the originator of Rapala music, caught up with everyone. With thousands of memes flooding social media timeline (Twitter and Instagram), the underlying cautionary tale behind the #egungunbecareful story seems to have been lost in conveyance.

The sentence Egungun (Masquerade) be careful, Na express road you dey go is a bit of warning (idiom) advising about preventing going astray – a pathway that could lead to destruction. This sentence was extracted from the Obesere album titled “Egungun Be Careful” released 19-years ago. But the question now is, why is it trending in 2020.

According to one of the managers of Obesere, “In February 2020, there was a hit and run story involving a masquerade and a car owner. The masquerade died on the spot. The deliberations and discussions from people here and there about the death of the ‘masquerade’ brought about folks referring to Obesere’s advice in his song. Someone made a tweet about it, and it began to trend. In that same February, Obesere released a new song titled Skoro. The buzz surrounding his new single increases the trend of #egungunbecareful. So with regards to all the memes, it was fun. That said, the cautionary tale of being careful in whatsoever one does in life should also be taken seriously – #egungunbecareful

Words by Sesan Adeniji: Follow on Instagram & Twitter – @sesanadeniji

Culled from Mystreetz Magazine, Burna Boy edition