Every year, precisely in August, a large turn out of Orisa worshippers from across the world converge in the ancient town of Oyo for Sango Festival.
This is the period that the Orisa pilgrims will invoke the mercy and divine guidance of Sango divinity through the Olodumare.
World Sango Festival is a time for devotion and supplication through belief, sharing of love and respect to the Will of Olodumare .
With fervent hope and strong faith in Olodumare , all Olorisa pilgrims will receive the divine grace of Olodumare and the Hereafter.
The festival will take off from Koso, the ancient temple dedicated to Sango for the blessing ceremony.
Sango priests are expected to be at the prayer ceremony with the blessing ceremony for the offering f bitter kola, amid silence and mutual co existence.
Sango Devotees are expected to sit by the shrine and devotionally pray to the Olodumare, while some priests will carry the bitter kola in the Calabash, open it and spray it with water .
There will be a sense of fulfilment to those who make it all the way.
There is, therefore, an urgent need to identify this cultural tourism centre, the Sango festival, and explore its potential to the fullest for economic prosperity.
I also want to seek deeper cultural identification for spiritual re-orientation, re-armament, charges Brazil, Nigeria to promote, allow African religions to exist,
While the Western countries must give room for a re-rerun to African culture as the definer of spiritual, physical personalities and the mirror through which Africans understand their world and appreciate social realities.
Sango would be remembered as one of the rare African leaders who became instant success in empire building.
Unfortunately, what owners of the culture do not appreciate at home are being cherished, admired and highly valued by those outside and are doing everything humanly possible to acquire it by all means and at all cost.
The uniqueness of Oyo traditions is worthy of emulation taking for examples the respect Yoruba people have for the institutional authority, clothing and mode of dressing, the beauty of Yoruba language with its semantics, the use of proverbs and aphorism, different satires of Yoruba poems full of wisdom and philosophy that has no equal all over the world.
Oyo tradition is the pride of Oyo, and it is the main reason why the city continues to enjoy respect among the African nations and the black races in general.
This best explained in the common saying that due process is the nature of administration at Oyo. This is justice which Sango stands for. It is the practice his Imperial Majesty. The ALAAFIN of Oyo is known for, and this is what Nigeria should be known for because where there is justice, there shall be peace and where there is peace, there will be development.
And it is development everybody should be working towards to complement whatever the governments at local, state and federal levels are doing.
A celebration of Sango as evidenced in the festival provides everyone with a rare opportunity to define his or her attitude to culture by identifying with the virtues of Sango, and in so doing equip ourselves with an understanding of these virtues that transformed Sango from being just the fourth ruler of the kingdom of Oyo to global brand that he has become today.
In this era of African cultural re-awakening, the life, leadership, administration and government under Sango as Alaafin here in Oyo should be explored in the strictest academic tradition and the ennobling values intellectualized.
The life of Alaafin Sango would definitely be an excellent example in leadership, considering the fact that his rule of Oyo was for less than a decade.
However, the ancient city of Oyo town is currently painted red as His Imperial Majesty, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, is celebrating the world Sango Festival.
The week-long celebration of the world rich Yoruba culture and tradition which begins on the 12th (today) will be up till the 21st of August, 2021.
