In Sacred Journeys: Oṣun-Oṣogbo the Nigerian festival is shown in its modern context, as a pilgrimage, of sorts, for not only peoples from around Nigeria (and surrounding countries) but also for those hailing from the New World. You may ask yourself, “What the heck is Oṣun-Oṣogbo?” Let me tell you. Oṣun-Oṣogbo (O-shoon O-shog-bo) is an annual festival taking place in Nigeria, along the banks of the Oṣun River. Oṣun is actually an Oriṣa, a Goddess of sorts; rivers, fertility and motherhood are her domain. The festival celebrates the people’s gratitude for her and honors her, as she is a chief deity in the Yoruba pantheon. Throughout the episode we follow a handful of Americans who have come to Africa for the festival and be apart of this ancient ceremony that speaks to their spiritual selves. That being said, whoever directed this series did so in such an unimpressive way. It is more than possible that my expectations of the film were nowhere near the goals of the filming crew and writers of PBS- Sacred Journeys. I am definitely not a screenwriter, however I feel that if you are trying to make a tv show about religion, conveying the power practitioners feel is crucial. My main schtick is that throughout my time spent watching this I saw oriṣa worshipers with such fervor and energy and Bruce Fieler(PBS’ on-screen narrator) approached it in a bland way; calm narration, off cue music (ominous in mundane situations, light in more powerful ones), and a general isolation almost between the program and what oriṣa worship was really trying to get at. I feel like the enthusiasm and energy, especially surrounding Oṣun-Oṣogbo, is so key to oriṣa worship, and PBS fell a little flat in trying to capture it.

Religious mixture is very much present in Yoruba tradition. Nigeria in particular is religiously divided between Islam, Christianity, and Oriṣa Worship. Bruce Fieler states, in the film, that a big draw towards the christian church in Nigeria is the sense of community and connections the church gives to worshipers. Apparently the Christian church even goes as far as to promise jobs to those who convert to the faith. In response to this, some oriṣa worshipers have begun to try and build a sense of community within their own practice, to keep followers from leaving their ranks. This is not necessarily hybridity or ‘religious mixing,’ I would say it’s more of an evolutionary process. One faith takes ideas from another faith and grows because of it. I am willing to bet Nigerian Christians take ideas or components from Yoruba tradition, though I do not know for sure.

This evolutionary process extends to the Americas as a mixing of American culture and Yoruba tradition. Paul Johnson has some interesting thoughts on Transculturation (the phenomenon of confluencing cultures) in his book The Study of Religion. “Transculturation nuanced acculturation by insisting 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.”(Johnson 759). Nathaniel Styles goes on to say oriṣa worship is not just ritual practices, it is a way of life. There is an entire culture surrounding oriṣa worship that fosters communities in the United States. It is a way of life that has survived diaspora, slavery, discrimination and many other challenges throughout time. Due to the adversity Yoruba peoples in the New World went through, the Yoruba culture in the United States must be fairly different than the relatively consistent culture of “Yorubaland” (Nigeria). I think it would be pretty interesting if Bruce Fieler and the PBS team interviewed Alathia Stewart and Oni Yipiay-Henton (the two young women undergoing the priestess initiation rites for the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival in the film) asking them to compare/contrast the oriṣa tradition they grew up practicing, to the oriṣa tradition they were experiencing in Nigeria. This film leaves me with more questions than answers, does the influx of Americans influence the practices of Nigerians? How far have New World traditions deviated from those of old? Does oriṣa practice here in the States reach the same level of intensity witnessed in Lagos? Or are things more subdued due to the influences of christianity and slavery? Food for thought…