Osun Osogbo: Beyond the ritual rites

Over 400 years on, the Osun Osogbo Festival, to a large extent has contributed immensely to promoting the culture, tradition, art and identity of Yoruba race. As this year edition of the festival started on Monday, 10th of August and the grand finale held on Friday, 21st of August, this piece by HAMEED OYEGBADE explores the origin, significance and the socio-economic benefits of Osun Osogbo festival to the people of the ancient city.

     procession by traditionalists during Osun festival  

The Osun grove is a sacred forest sitting on 75 hectares of land along the banks of the Osun River, which is located on the outskirt of Osogbo, capital of Osun State. In the 17th Century, human beings came to populate Osogbo and moved the emerging geographical landmass away from the predominance of spirits and fairies when Oba Larooye came from Ipole-Omu to settle along the bank of River Osun. 

In the 1840s, after the fall of the old Oyo Empire, Osogbo became a refugee town for people fleeing Fulani forces. As a result, Osogbo increased in population largely due to migration from other Yoruba towns. The Fulani attacks on Osogbo were repelled and as a result, Osogbo became the symbol of pride for all the Yorubas and was given the appellation “Oroki Asala”, meaning a safe heaven. The early history of the Osun Osogbo grove is essentially the legendary account of a spirit world. 

                                                                       Osun Osogbo grove

Myth has it that the Goddess of Osun River lived in a beautiful surrounding at the grove and possessed magical powers which inspired her people and frightened their enemies. She is ascribed with the powers of fertility, healing and protection. She is also credited with the ability to bless her adherents with the good things of life and she was being worshipped.

                                    Osun worshippers     

However, with the advent of Islamic religion, Osun Osogbo and other deities became less fashionable to be identified with among the indigenes of Osogbo who had embraced Islam. By the 1950s, the religious issue had detrimental effect on the Osun grove. The shrines were neglected and traditional priests began to disappear. Trees were felled; sculptures were reportedly stolen and hunting and fishing that were previously forbidden in the sacred Osun grove were became a daily routine. All this was exacerbated by a rise in the looting of statues and movable sculptures to feed a global antiquity market.

                                             Wenger (left) and Doyin

The grove was desecrated and would have gone into extinction if not for the intervention of an Austrian woman, Suzanne Wenger, popularly known as Adunni Olorisa who stopped the abuses going on in the grove and restored the sanctity of the sacred forest. As a result of the preservation, in 1965, Osun grove was declared a national monument and in 2005, the grove was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as world heritage site. 

This and other factors made the annual Osun festival a very popular event to the extent that many Africans in the Diaspora now undertake pilgrimage to Osogbo to for the festival. Wenger died about seven years ago and she was buried in the Osun grove but her death did not signify any danger for the survival of the grove. 

Chief Adigun Olosun, one of Wenger’s children said her mother was passionate about the grove and that she could not bear the abuses on the grove then. He said he was not oblivious of the efforts of his mother on the grove and that he has also been doing his best to sustain his mother efforts on the grove.

According to him, “at crucial point in the history of the Osun grove, Mama strive to protect the grove and she enjoy the support of people of Osogbo with the encouragement of the then Oba and the cooperation of the local people. They joined hands together to form the New Sacred Art Movement to challenge land speculators, repel poachers, and protect the shrines at the grove. She worked with local artists to create large, heavy and fixed sculptures in iron cement and mud, as opposed to the smaller traditional wooden ones, in order that their intimidating architectural forms would help to protect the grove and stop thefts. All the sculptures were done in full respect for the spirits of the grove, with inspiration from Yoruba mythology and in consultations with the gods in a traditional context. The new work made the grove a symbol of identity for the Yoruba people”.

Osun-Osgogbo festival is celebrated at the grove in the month of August every year and it attracts thousands of Osun worshippers, spectators and tourists from all walks of life. For the people of Osogbo Land, August is a month of celebration, traditional cleansing of the city and cultural reunion of the people with their ancestors and the founders of the Osogbo Kingdom. The Festival is usually a two-week-long programme starting with the traditional cleansing of the town called ‘Iwopopo’.

The Iwopopo would be followed by the lighting of the 500-year-old sixteen-point lamp called ‘Ina Olojumerindinlogun’ three days after the Iwopopo. Ina Olojumerindinlogun, the sacred lamp lit at the beginning of the annual Osun-Osogbo festival. Thereafter, there would be an assemblage of the crowns of the past traditional rulers of Osogbo for blessings and this is known as ‘Ibroriade’ (worshiping of the crowns).

The key feature of the Osun Osogbo festival is the main rites at the Osun shrines where the priests would appease the goddess of the Osun River and perform certain sacrifices. The Arugba (Calabash carrier), a votary virgin (a cultural version of the Virgin Mary), who bears the Osun spiritual calabash contains sacrifice materials meant to appease and worship the Osun goddess, on her head would be escorted to the shrine from the palace of the Ataoja. When she carrying the calabash, the Arugba is no longer seen as a virgin maid at that time, she is regarded as a deity herself and people make prayers and cast all their problems on her as she bears the calabash and lead the people to the Osun shrines.

                                               Arugba Osun 

The Osun Osogbo festival is no longer a cultural event of the Osogbo or Yoruba people, it has become a global event with people attending from Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Spain, Canada, and the United States. Adherents or believers in the Osun goddess travel from all over the world to attend the annual cultural event in Osogbo.

                                               Tourists at Osun Osogbo festival  

The federal government and its agencies including the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, (NCMM), Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) usually partake in the festival while Osun State government also collaborates with the traditionalists to make the annual event a great success.

Meanwhile, over the years, the Osun Osogbo Festival has grown to become a brand sought after by several companies willing to position their goods and services. The festival is not all about ritual rites in the Osun groves; it is also a celebration of cultural events. Many business organizations and companies now take part in the celebrations, seizing the opportunity to showcase their products and sell their services. Branded cars and give-away shirts are seen all over the places while promotional business activities ranging from advertising to marketing of new and existing goods were going on in earnest.

A businessman in Osogbo, Chief Gbadebo Adeyemo said he usually make very huge profit from his business during the Osun festival. “I sell Kampala fabric and I usually make more profit during Osun festival because the white men and other tourists that come for the festival buy more Kampala fabric. So, it is a good business for us during the festival and we hope to record good profit this year too” Adeyemo said.

Sellers of food and beverages and other consumables also said their businesses move well during the festival. Also the night life in Osogbo usually booms during the festival with various special promotions by major brands including the Nigeria Brewery Plc and the MTN. During a visit to a night show called Star Night, socialites were seen enjoying themselves. My camera also caught the Seriki Hausa in Osun State, Alhaji Lawal Gomina at Star Night where he was playing with his peers including chiefs and district heads.

One of the beer sellers at the Star night show, Mr Aremu Lateef who operates Laparias Cool Spot said during the Osun festival, he was making the triple of his normal income of when there was no festival. “We usually rejoice when Osun Osogbo festival comes up because our businesses boom during this period and we make more profit. For instance, the profit I make during the festival is three times more than the profit I make before the festival. Within these two weeks, every business in Osogbo and Osun state as a whole including the hotels would experience booms. So, the festival goes beyond the ritual rites at the grove because many of us here have nothing to do with the grove but we are particular about our business and the gains”, Aremu noted.