Soyinka takes Osun-Osogbo water for worshippers in Brazil

 According to Tribune, NOBEL Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, in a bid to unite believers of the Osun-Osogbo festival with their diaspora counterparts in the Caribbean, on Thursday, scooped water from the Osun River with a view to transferring same to worshippers in Brazil. 


Soyinka, who is a UNESCO ambassador, visited the grove to inspect the conditions of the tourist sites, relics and natural resources within the grove.
The Nobel Laureate said that the Yoruba people in the diaspora, who are worshippers of Osun, only use symbolic water in a bowl to depict the Osun River in Brazil during festivals.
He said he had promised the worshippers that in his next visit to the South American country, he would bring water from Osun River, so as to confer originality to the ‘spiritual essence of water’ during the festival.
“I am taking Osun-Osogbo water to the Osun worshippers in Brazil. We have a lot of black people there and many of them are devotees of Osun, Sango, Obatala, Ogun, Yemoja and other deities,” Soyinka asserted.
“When I visited the worshippers in Brazil, I found out that they have preserved Yoruba culture, from the liturgies to some of the prayers and even the processions of the devotees. I saw the Iyalorisa of Osun. I saw a bowl of water, which was symbolic of Osun River and I promised them that I would bring them the actual water from Osun.
“I came to see how the work is going on here because there is a lot of restoration here and there is always a conflict of ideas when projects like this are being done. In making sure that one element in a preserved place like this does not clash with another element and to see how we can harmonise, we came to take a look; to see if there is any kind of advice we can give,” he said.