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.

Film Reflection: DUE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 BY 11:59 PM

FIRST: View the film Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler: “Oṣun-Oṣogbo.” You can access it online through the library here:

http://voyager.uvm.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=4007883

Note: You must be connected to the UVM network (either through an on-campus connection or logged in via proxy to stream the video).

As you watch the film be sure to take note of how the film connects to our class readings and discussions so far. Consider the following questions:

• In what way is Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival an example of an African diaspora religion? What specific people, events, or objects make you think that?
• How do terms of religious mixture (such as syncretism or hybridity) help to make sense of the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival as depicted in the film? What examples of mixture can you identify (if any)?
• How does the Oṣun-Oṣogbo Festival fit into Thompson’s discussion of “the altar concept”?Think about how Thompson’s claims about Afro-Atlantic altars—his emphasis on divine focus, elevation, and the overcoming of time/space distinctions through religious ritual—are evident in the Oṣun-Oṣogbo festival. Pay careful attention to the spaces where the festival takes place, the varying levels of participation for different people who attend the festival engage in, and the actions that those participants engage in as part of the festival.

SECOND: Write a short (500 words) reflection on the film that addresses ONE of the above questions. While you are encouraged to be exploratory in your discussion (in other words, you do not need to write a definitive answer, but you can instead explore possible answers to the question), your reflection should include a specific example from the film as well as a direct quote from (at least) one of our class readings. Most importantly, your reflection should demonstrate your own thoughts and opinions about the film and how it connects to what we have been reading about and discussing in class.

You do not need to provide a “works cited” section or a bibliography for your post, but you should indicate the author of the reading(s) cited and the page number on which the quote is located in your reflection.

THIRD: Post your reflection to the class blog by 11:59pm on Friday, September 15!

To post to the blog you need to log in and access the “Dashboard” for our blog. Click on “Posts” and then on “Add New” to create a blog entry. You can then cut and paste your reflection into the box. Be sure to add a title for your reflection, and select the “Reflections” category for your post. Then hit “Publish.” If you have any problems adding your reflection to the blog, email Professor Brennan ASAP!

Note: this short reflection will be revised and expanded next week and a final formal draft submitted as your first writing assignment for the class.