Overview
A two-week annual festival in Osogbo honouring Osun, the Yoruba goddess of the river, fertility and prosperity, culminating in a procession to her grove on the riverbank. The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
History and origin
The festival's origin story is tied to the founding of Osogbo, when settlers are said to have made a pact with the river goddess Osun, agreeing to honour her annually in exchange for protection and prosperity. The grove survived the twentieth century largely because of the work of Susanne Wenger, an Austrian artist who settled in Osogbo, took the name Adunni Olorisa, and with local artists rebuilt its shrines and sculptures. It was inscribed by UNESCO in 2005.
What happens
The festival opens with Iwopopo, the cleansing of the town, followed by the lighting of the five-hundred-year-old Ina Olojumerindinlogun lamp and the Ibroriade, an assembly of the crowns of past Ataojas of Osogbo. The climax is the procession of the Arugba, a votive virgin who carries the sacred calabash on her head from the palace to the grove, walking in silence through enormous crowds while prayers are made. Devotees, including many from Brazil, Cuba and the United States, come to the river to pray and collect its water.
When it takes place
August each year, over roughly two weeks.
Where a date is set by a traditional council, a lunar calendar or the harvest, it changes from year to year. Confirm locally before making plans around it.
Where to see it
Osogbo and the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, Osun State, Osun State
The people behind it
YorubaThe Yoruba are concentrated in south western Nigeria, across Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti, with large populations in Kwara and Kogi and related communities in Benin Republic and Togo. They are one of the most urbanised peoples in Africa, with towns such as Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ile-Ife, Oyo and Ogbomoso that were already large and densely built long before colonial rule. Yoruba political tradition is monarchical: each town has an oba supported by a council of chiefs, and Ile-Ife holds the place of origin in Yoruba thought, while the Alaafin of Oyo once headed an empire that stretched west into present-day Benin. Yoruba religion, philosophy and art have travelled further than the people themselves. The òrìṣà tradition, the Ifá divination corpus and the drumming and dance that accompany them survive in Cuba, Brazil and Trinidad through the Atlantic slave trade, where they shaped Santería and Candomblé. Today most Yoruba are Muslim or Christian, often within families that hold both, and older practice persists alongside them. The language is tonal, written in a Latin alphabet with diacritics, and carries a proverb-heavy register in which indirect speech and respect for age are woven into ordinary conversation.Spotted something wrong? Tell us.