Jack Bechtold

Altars of the Black Atlantic

9-14-17

Reflection to Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival movie

After watching this film I can clearly see how the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival and Orisha as a religion itself is a product of cultural and religious mixing, the roots of Orisha seem to have stayed the same since the beginning, yet all other aspects seem to be in constant motion of what is right for the time and place. This was especially clear when reading thompsons reading “the concept altar”, because it showed how the Africans used their environment and the religions around them to reinforce their own beliefs. At one point in thompsons book he talks about the fundamentals of the Afro-Atlantic altar he said specifically that “the fundamentals of the Afro-Atlantic altar are additive, eclectic, non exclusive.” This could not be more true. while slaves Africans used statues of christian saints as altars. They didn’t use just any random statue. Worshipers used statues of saints who showed the same strengths as the Orisha they worshiped. The two american women’s journey to become priestess’s was a great demonstration of the religious mixing because even though they have been separated and forbidden from their religion for hundreds of years their people managed to endure the prosecution of other religions such as  Christianity, judaism, and islam by imbibing the differences and celebrating the similarities. A priest in the movie said something along the lines of we are all worshiping the same one god we just have different ways of doing it. This was really eye opening. The idea that all of the mono theistic religions of the world are focused on one true god. The different Orisha are simply different aspects of the one true god. You pray to the specific aspect of god that you need help from. Orisha seems like a very similar form of communication as christians practice of speaking to god himself. Lets say you need help with conception for example, in the Christian religion you would go to god or specifically St. Gerard Majella. The same goes for Orisha. If you were having trouble with conception you would have an altar of the Orisha Oshun. This is a product of the cultural mixing that has been going on since the beginning of time. The Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival is a great example of the cultural mixing that was a byproduct of the slave trade because people travel from all over the globe to be part of the festival.  The only reason that the festival is as big on a global scale as it is is due to the cultural mixing of africans sold as slaves with those of other religious descent. Overall I am in awe at how historical events have cause such a dramatic change in a religion. I wish we could see what would have happened if there was no African Diaspora. Would Orisha still be one of the ten largest religions in the world? we may never know.  All we can know is that Orisha is a product of religious mixing.

The African Diaspora has been defined by many, and in many different ways. The definition that I find that connects with the Oṣun-Oṣogbo Festival best though, would be the how Johnson defines it in Chapter 30, “Religions of the African Diaspora” article we were given to read. “Diasporic religions are composed on the hand out of memories about space- places of origin, about the distances traversed from them since a time of exile, and the physical or ritual returns imagined, […] diasporic religious agents recollect the past through territorial and temporal ways of seeing, and from particular sites.” This idea of the rituals returns is clear in the video as the Oṣun-Oṣogbo Festival occurs every year in August and hundreds of thousands of people make the trip to return to Africa and to Oṣogbo for the festivities. The women in the film who came to Africa to be initiated as priestesses of the Yoruba religion said that coming back felt like they were taking back all that had been taken from them when their ancestors had been taken away from their homeland, and from their religion, where they were forced to hide their religion and keep it veiled behind Catholicism and Christian ideas during slavery. In the film they talked about how many of the traditions haven’t changed in hundreds of years, and that most of them are survived even through the toll that the African Slave trade took on Nigeria and the people from there. They kept the memories of Africa and these religions alive though which is a key part of being a diasporic religion, because they are composed of these memories, it’s the memories that keep the religion alive in the population. This is such an important part of diasporic religions, that the whole festival is based off of a memory. That memory being the one of how the goddess Oṣun became the patron orisha of Oṣogbo, and the reason being, because the first king of Oṣogbo chopped down a tree in Oṣun’s Sacred grove, breaking her personal dye pots, and in an attempt to fix what he had done and to forge this relationship between his kingdom and the goddess, promised her sacrifices and the festival every August. I think this film gave me a better understanding into the diasporic religions and to the Yoruba religions, because being able to see part of the festival gave me a better understanding of how large of a religion it actually is, I wasn’t aware that it was in the top 10 largest religions, so to see how many people traveled to come participate in this festival, and knowing from the article that we read recently about the festival celebrating Oṣun in Brazil really helped me to understand just how large of a religion it really is. As well as showing how popular of a religion it is, the film also showed us more into the intimate parts of the religion. When we saw Bruce Feiler, the host of the film go in and speak with the priest and watch a bit of a ritual, or when we got a look into the process of how the young girl was chosen to carry the sacrifices for Oṣun down to the river, we got to actually see a very important part of the religion that we normally do not get to see in the articles that we read.

–Sam Brady

Robert Thompson talks extensively about his altar concept throughout Face of the Gods, placing importance on material objects, significant locales of worship, and connection with Orishas, or deities.  The Osun-Osogbo Festival taking place in Osogbo, Nigeria reflects Thompson’s discussion of the altar concept in many ways.  The festival incorporates many traditions into a multiday celebration and worship of Osun, one of the most important and powerful of the Yoruba Orishas.

Similar to traditional Afro-Atlantic altars, material objects have a supreme place in the celebration and build up to the festival.  Cloth and textiles include elaborate patterns and eloquent designs, with each color corresponding to a different Orisha.  Participants in the religious ceremonies of the festival will wear these outfits to symbolize their connection with their related Orisha.  Two women from New York are depicted being indoctrinated into the Yoruba faith during the film.  Their multiday ceremony takes place both in public and in private, with the transformation occurring after days of seclusion with holy priests and priestesses.  Upon indoctrination, the women don elaborate clothing and sacred crowns, which signify their completion of the ceremony.  They then make their way to the banks of the Osun, where they officially become members of the Yoruba faith.  Their intensive indoctrination process allows them to better understand and honor their faith.

Other material objects closely associated with the festival include ceremonial bells.  Small and portable, participants will ring these bells to help connect them to the gods while praying.  Similar to altars found on both sides of the Atlantic, small sacrifices of food and drink, such as fried foods, gin, and cola, are offered to Osun.

One of the central components of the festival is the march from Osogbo to the Osun river, which surrounds a young virgin woman who carries the main sacrifice to the riverbank.  The woman’s ceremonial preparation is long and intensive, she is kept sheltered away from the outside world for weeks leading to the ceremony.  The preparation of the young woman is led by the high priestess, who live in a temple reflecting the sacred grove of the Osun river.  As Thompson said, “Yoruba building altars thus construct a face/surface/door, a complex threshold for communication with the other world,” (Thompson 30).  The high priestess’s home and secluded staging ground for the young woman’s training is rife with symbolic connection to the Yoruba faith and to Osun.  The young woman’s connection to Osun is sacred and powerful after this intense ritualistic experience.  In the days leading up to the festival, she, along with many other priests and priestesses, make final preparations and prayers, often in hot, crowded rooms in order to closely connect with Osun.  These rituals, along with the ceremonial bells and intricate fabrics, help Yoruba followers to bridge the divide between the gods and the mortal world.

In the film, host Bruce Feiler visits a Yoruba priest in order to have his prayer heard.  Feiler notes the close, personal relationship induced by the environment of the priest’s temple.  Feiler also comments on the closeness of the sacred objects of the Yoruba religion, in fact, he holds these objects and touches them to his head and chest with praying.  This personal, tight-knit atmosphere allows Feiler and other worshippers to better focus on the divine, and connect with the gods so they may hear their prayers.

The atmosphere of the festival is largely communal and jovial.  City residents of Osogbo and pilgrims alike partake in a celebration wrought with food, music, laughter, and dance, culminating in the march down to the river.  The festival includes both religious ceremonies and exciting festivities throughout its duration.  The main tenets of the festival closely reflect Thompson’s altar concept, placing importance on material objects, communal worship, closeness with the divine, and an opportunity to honor and connect with Osun, so that she may hear one’s prayers.

Noah Stommel

After watching the film, Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler: “Oṣun-Oṣogbo,” it became apparent that there are many ways in which the religious practices of the Yoruba people of Nigeria have been undergone mixing with non-African culture over the centuries. Of course, mixing of Oriṣa religion began on a grand scale with the slave trade, beginning in the 15^th century. With the forced immersion of Yoruba people into European-dominated cultures in the New World, there was the obvious blending with Christianity that faced Oriṣa religion. As was stated in the film, religious practices from Oriṣa religion and Christianity, namely Catholicism, were combined, although the African-originating religion was often obscured by the dominant European religion.

This idea was shown in one of our readings, titled Overture: The Concept “Altar,” in which African practitioners of Oriṣa religions were disallowed by Europeans to continue their rituals. On one occasion, police “confronted four men calmly seated with Panama hats in their hands. Other men were standing. Two European dolls, apparently for children, reclined against a wall. The police could do nothing. There were no ‘pagan instruments’ for them to seize and take away, no signs of a black religion for them to persecute, as they were wont to do in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” (Overture: The Concept ‘Altar’, page 21). As soon as the police left, the objects seemingly strewn around resumed their purpose in a ritual religious practice. The hats became drums, and the dolls became used again as spiritual icons. This example demonstrates aspects of transculturation experienced by those hanging onto their ancestral traditions, due to the forced acclimation they experienced to make their practices suit a different environment.

It was also mentioned in the film that certain Catholic saints have parallel figures of significance in Yoruba culture. The integration of certain valued religious aspects infused into Oriṣa religion from Christianity clearly shows the syncretization of religion that has taken place over the centuries. As elaborated upon in the film, the slave traders did not destroy the Yoruba religion, but rather transplanted it into other corners of the world, allowing it to grow on its own, which ultimately resulted in hybridized rituals with Christianity especially.

What I found additionally interesting about the film was the fact that there is mixing of Oriṣa religion not just in the New World, but also still in parts of Nigeria, where Islam and Christianity clash with traditional Yoruba culture. The film mentions the fact that the presence of more globalized religion in Nigeria is threatening the traditional Oriṣa practices. The public is inundated with religious propaganda that argues the benefits of converting to Christianity. The youth of Nigeria are even proselytized in school, where mainstream Christianity tries to drown out the reverence for Oriṣa.

Ultimately, this film broadened my insights into how Oriṣa religion continues to be influenced by other religions, chiefly Christianity, on both sides of the Atlantic, and how, despite the fact that Christianity exists in force both in the New World and the Old, the Oriṣa-oriented culture can be affected differently. Perhaps most importantly, this film helped to further my understanding of the resiliency of Yoruba culture throughout the recent centuries, and the lasting significance that preserved practices still have on people of all corners of the world touched by West-African influence.

Alyssa Falco

The African Diaspora is something that is practiced very actively in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. Throughout the video is was always stated how the people were forced away from their homeland and now they chose to come back. This idea of them coming back gives them the power back as to what they may have lost by leaving. However, I believe that if you wish to practice something you do it at you own will. The idea of there being one God, and depending on what that God may be, whether you are Catholic and worship God and Jesus or you worship Oshun, it is a person’s choice. In the movie the priest said “we left Africa but Africa didn’t leave us.” I find this very powerful as to the fact that all these people are doing exactly what they would have done if they had stayed in Africa. They were given the choice and they chose to follow or continue with their religion. This festival allows people to be apart of this religion and to see for themselves what it means to the people who practice it. The festival is a huge part of explaining what the African Diaspora is and what it can mean. Just by watching this video and seeing how people worship Oshun you can tell that they put their faith in her. The king even comes and worships with them. In the reading “Intro to Philosophy of History” by Hegel, he says “Religion begins with the consciousness that there is a being higher than man.” (92). No matter how cruel Hegel may have been, this quote makes sense and is very well seen that that is exactly what takes place in Africa. These people to believe there is a higher being than man and Hegel himself is saying that that itself is a religion. Towards the end of the video the question kept arising, “how can a church be next to a temple and coexist with one another?” How can they not is my response. Look at America, where I grew up there was 3 different kinds of Christian and Catholic churches just in my town. In the next town over there was a jewish center across the street from a Christian church. This happens all the time in America. Yes, some religions may be more popular than others, however no brawls broke out in my town about what religion you prefer. The people who worship Oshun have numbers, not even that, they have people who support their religion that don’t even practice it. It is possible for them to be a community and live by what they believe. Along with every religion comes the idea of wanting to make yours bigger because you may be so passionate about your religion you want everybody to be apart of it, so you ask people to join and ask them to give it a try. But it shouldn’t matter who comes knocking at your door, you can chose to believe in what you wish and these people are doing just that. Their festival is known worldwide. People are aware of them, people respect them. Not only that but they believe in themselves, they have their higher being and they will worship their being until they can’t any longer. That’s all a religion needs, followers.