All there
is to know about Osun- Osogbo festival
Today: March 9, 2017
Today: March 9, 2017
Every
August, lots of people from around the world throng to Osun State, Nigeria, to
attend and participate in the famous, two-week long Osun-Osogbo Festival. It is
held at the illustrious and sacred Osun Grove, which was named as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 2005. Although a sizable number of the participants are
Osun indigenes, the festival has, over the years, morphed into an event that
attracts the attention of tourists and visitors from other parts of the world.
The Early
Years…
According to legend, the festival was borne out of
the yearly sacrifice done to celebrate the river goddess, who serves as the
protector of the the clan. The legend goes thus: about seven centuries ago,
when the current Osogbo community was founded. The river goddess assured the
people of her protection and promised to bless their women with fruitfulness of
they would offer a sacrifice to her annually. The contract was sealed and the
sacrifices and ceremonies became a thing – or so the legend goes.
The
Susanne Wenger Effect…
The Osun-Osogbo festival has evolved beyond just
being a cultural event celebrated by the Yoruba peoples of Osogbo to being a
renown international celebration that keeps attracting new participants yearly.
The story of the festival would be incomplete without talking about the
significant impact that Susanne Sawyer – the Austrian born artist – had on the
culture.
Susanne Sawyer and her husband, Ulli Beier, where
stationed in Ibadan in the early 1950s. Ulli was hired at the University of
Ibadan as a phonetician. They relocated to Osun soon afterwards and, there,
Susanne cultivated a deep interest in the Yoruba religion, meeting and
communicating with one of the priests of the religion at the time. She later
became a Yoruba priestess herself, with the traditional title: Iwinfunmi
Adunni Olorisha which loosely translates as ‘the loved one who or serves
the deity.’
The White Priestess:
Susanne Wenger’s influence is very remarkable in
the scheme of things, as her ability to learn and interpret some of the
intricate details about the Yoruba culture through her profound artistic gift
and activism greatly contributed to making the festival more renown. As the
guardian of the Sacred Grove of Osun goddess on the banks of the Osun River in
Oshogbo, she helped restore many of the shrines that were in varying states of
ruin from neglect. She also managed to preserve the forest around the grove,
ensuring that no hunting or fishing was done around the groves, the tress
weren’t felled and that the scenery was kept sacred. She passed on 12th of
January, 2009 at the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Hospital in Osogbo.
Main Attractions…
The Osun-Osogbo festival, without a doubt, is more
than just sacrifices performed to celebrate the Osun River goddess. Not
anymore, at least. There are several activities planned around the festival, as
tourists and visitors all come to witness, interact and partake in the two-week
long celebration. However, there is a sequence of rituals that kick off the
celebrations and they are:
1. The Iwopopo Ritual: This is a ritual done to cleanse
the city from evil. It is done first before the festival starts properly.
2. The Ina Olujumerindinlogun Ritual: This is the traditional ritual
that involves the lighting of a 16-point lamp which is believed to be 600 years
old. This ritual is carried out three days after the Iwopopo ritual is done.
3. The Iboriade Ritual: The Iboriade ritual is
when all the crowns of the past kings – Ataojas – are assembled for
blessings by the sitting Ataoja of Osogbo, the Arugba, the Yeye
Osun, and a committee of priestesses.
4. The Arugba Ritual: This is one of the major
highlights of the festival. A calabash containing the sacrifice materials that
would be used to appease and worship the goddess is carried across town by a
votary virgin, on her head. As she leads the procession to the river, the
people, seeing her as a representative of the goddess, cast their problems on
her and say prayers.
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