Osogbo: Home of culture, arts and crafts

By 'Gbenga Faturoti, Osogbo

Osogbo, the capital city of Osun State, is one of the quiet cities in the federation with a population of about 280,000 people based on the 1991 census. It is situated on a land over 500 metres (800ft) above sea level and is drained by the Osun River and its tributaries.

Research into the tradition revealed that Osogbo was founded as early as Oduduwa period. Oso-Igbo, the goddess of Osun River, was the Queen and original founder of Osogbo. She was credited with many important achievements, which helped to establish the town. She lived in a beautiful surrounding and was said to have possessed magical powers, which inspired her people and frightened their enemies.

She was acclaimed the goddess of fertility, protection and blessings. She possessed the ability to give children to barren women and power to heal the sick and the afflicted by means of her medicinal water from the Osun river.

The aborigines of the town, reportedly simply disappeared into the spirit world when they were defiled by strangers. The current traditional ruler of the town, Oba Iyiola Oyewale Matanmi the third, said their period provided a basis of history of Osogbo, saying, "whether these spirits and fairies were aborigines, seen as real human beings with supernatural powers, or they were only imaginary beings is unimportant to the people of the town".

The traditional occupation of the people of Osogbo is farming. They also engage in traditional cloth weaving, cloth dyeing, embroidery, pottery and blacksmithing.

The town however became the commercial town with the arrival of the railway in 1907, which brought the colonial government to the doorstep of the town.

Like many other Yoruba towns, Ifa (oracle) festival, Ogun (god of Iron) festival, Egungun (masquerade) festival are some of the festivals observed in Osogbo. But what makes the town unique is the annual Osun Osogbo festival which regularly attracts thousands of tourists from all walks of life.

Chief Gabriel Ojo Oparanti, the Otun Ajagunna of Osogbo and president of Osogbo Cultural Heritage Council, said the people of Osogbo enhanced the status of culture across the world through the Osun Osogbo festival. He explained that his council was inaugurated in 1986 to preserve and promote all the festivals in Osogbo and the town. Renowned artists such as Jimoh Buraimoh, Okonfo Rao Kawawa, the late Pa Oyin Adejobi to mention but a few, take their roots from Osogbo.

This year's Osun Osogbo festival kicked off yesterday and will end on August 8.

During this period, indigenes of Osogbo all over, as well as foreigners especially from countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, U.S.A., Germany, India and other parts of Asia, visit Osogbo as tourists, as worshippers or purely for initiation/inauguration as believers of the goddess of Osun river.

According to Oparanti, River Osun takes its source from Igede in Ekiti State and flows through Ilesa before settling down in Osogbo. Here, the goddess of the river called Iya Osun, quickly established her kingdom within the grove, and since then, the people have lived with the spirit.

The festival, he disclosed, starts with Iwopopo (street dance), followed by the lighting of 16 points lamp reportedly taken from the river spirits by the early people, and then Iboripade (worship of the crown).

Oparanti, who gave detailed account of the festival, said the grand finale normally attracts various dignitaries from government circles and private organisations.

He said a virgin lady preserved for the purpose, normally leads the procession to the grove by carrying a calabash containing some antiquities, and the Oba, his traditional chiefs, princes, princesses and priests follow.

At the grove, the incumbent Ataoja (Oba) will sit on a stool of authority and traditional dancers would display to entertain the guests.

The priests and Oba will later go to the temple, to make sacrifices through divinations, to the goddess of the river for peace and tranquillity of the town.

When they come out of the temple, the goddess sends a messenger called Iko to pour holy (curative) water in the calabash held by the Oba or priest.

The belief was that any sick person that takes from the water will be healed of his or her ailments.

To make this year's event unique and colourful, the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), makers of Coca-Cola and sponsors of the festival, is organising an essay competition on the festival. Contestants are drawn from pupils of 20 secondary schools in the state, at levels SS I and SS II. The competition is being supervised by the Osogbo Cultural Heritage Council and the NBC.

According to Oparanti, the secondary school that produces the overall winner will win a new computer set while the student will have N50,000 worth of books while the student takes home N3,000.

On what would be the gains from the festival, Oparanti said all efforts to make government at all levels develop the grove, and turn it to a tourist centre to attract people have been unsuccessful.

"Local, state and federal governments do not focus their attention on the promotion of tourism in this country. We advise them that if they do it, it will serve as a source of generating more revenue internally because oil boom will soon be over.

"If we don't look at other areas to get more money to supplement the oil, the incoming generation would not forgive us," Oparanti said.

On the reality of the gift from the goddess of the river, the Otun Ajagunna said "the children provided by the goddess are normal persons. Many of them are now in high places, riding cars while many are overseas; they only come here annually to make sacrifice to the goddess through the priest."

During the festival, the economic situation of Osogbo receives a boost as taxi drivers, hoteliers, petty traders, photographers and other private business centres, normally record high patronage.

A little bit of modernisation has been brought into the festival by Oba Matanmi. According to Chief Olaniyan Adetoyese, the Otunba Gbobaniyi of Osogboland and one of the activists of Osun Osogbo festival, in the past, not very many people visited or worshipped the goddess of the river until recently when more people begin to receive their miracle through the curative water from the goddess.

Adetoyese disclosed further that the traditional ruler has contacted the National Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) for development of the centre so that the grove could become a tourist centre.

The Otun Gbobaniyi added that the National museum had agreed that the Osun grove be one of the international monuments in the world, a step which he said, is a welcome development.