Some of the aspects of the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival as seen in “Sacred Journeys” may seem familiar to the American viewer who has little experience with Afro-Atlantic religion, and for good reason. Religious mixture includes traditions of different types of religions and cultures all mixed together. Due to the influence of the slave trade, a lot of these mixtures have aspects and traditions that someone who is unfamiliar with many religions will still be able to recognize. Nigeria was a central country in relation to the slave trade, and many slaves from Nigeria were sent to South, Central, and North America. Practices from all around these areas mixed with practices brought over from Nigeria, and modified versions of religions spread around the world. “Sacred Journeys” may be about viewing and understanding Yoruba culture, but there are still plenty of aspects that are recognizable to someone who doesn’t know much about Afro-Atlantic religion.

One example of religious mixture is when the two young women being inducted into a Yoruba-centric culture shaved their heads and washed with holy water as a way to symbolize their induction into a new life and religion. This is similar to the idea of Christian baptism, in which someone, often a child, has holy water sprinkled on their head to represent entering a new life. These rituals are incredibly similar, and are an example of one of several very familiar aspects of the festival that a viewer is likely to recognize, even if they haven’t studied Afro-Atlantic religions.

Another example would be the animal sacrifice. During the induction of the two young women, several people that are practiced in performing traditional rituals sacrifice a goat. This is somewhat similar to a religion such as Satanism, in which one of the most recognizable aspects to a modern viewer would be the sacrifice of an animal, often a goat. Although this isn’t the most glamorous of comparisons, it is worth noting that animal sacrifice, no matter the reason why, is a very real aspect of both of these religious practices, and could be evidence of more mixing of cultures.

Something else to consider is the influence of the religious institutions so close to the celebrations of the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival. In Nigeria, many churches and mosques exist very close to the places in which these festivals are occurring, and many people mention how the churches are always trying to get others to convert. While the interactions between these religious groups seem somewhat hostile in their attempts to get conversions, it brings to light the idea that perhaps in their attempts to convert followers of Oṣun, maybe the other religious institutions have spread aspects of their own religions that got enveloped into existing traditions of Yoruba culture. This relates to Johnson’s idea that “even cultural losses, and the responses to loss, continued to inform the experience of a new territory and generate new practices both among the colonized and the colonizers” (“Syncretism and Hybridization”, 759). Different religious institutions may affect each other, and “losses” might be symbolized as people converting to other religions. This most likely had an effect on how the culture of the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival developed, as all of the factors incorporated into the religion and culture all added up to the festival that we see today.

-Tessa Barnett