World Sango festival and uniqueness of Oyo traditions (2)
” The purpose of the name World Sango is to recognize Oyo as the original ancestral home of Sango and to unite all Yoruba descents and enthusiasts once in a year in Oyo town.
Sango was preferred because he was a man of valour, purpose-driven and master of diplomacy.
His charismatic leadership re-defined the character and pattern of inter-group relations and diplomacy and made Oyo the centre-piece of his foreign relations’’.
By Bode Durojaiye, Director of Media and Publicity to His Imperial.Majesty, the Alaafin of Oyo ( 08050419987).
Due to the expansion of Oyo territory, Oyo was once the capital of the Oyo Empire, one of the most remarkable and vast Empires of West Africa that ruled for over 600 years uninterrupted , imprinting its culture, language and traditions across the region, known today as Yoruba common culture.
Still, Oyo is perceived as a place where tradition is strongly preserved in its essence.
Since the eighteenth century, when the transatlantic slave trade began, the traditions of Sango and Oyo were also widespread to the New World, being preserved today in several countries in the Diaspora.
World Sango Festival is a social practice and festive events deeply connected to the social, religious, cultural and political institutions in Oyo.
It is a key element for the maintenance of the city’s identity, unity among the people since immemorial times and the survival of the heart and the mind of the Yoruba culture.
It is the maintenance of coexistence with the ancestral world and nature.
The international cultural event will last for ten days and consists of intensive traditional and beliefs practices that accommodate many cultural features.
It is during the period of strong rains, which marks the beginning of a productivity season cycle and a renewal bond between the Alaafin and
Sango, the ancestral spiritual world.
It is a festival that reflects the traditional diversity of its environment.
Several activities will take place, which include, traditional prayers, reciting oral poetry under the rhythms of traditional drums followed by traditional dancing to evoke the ancestors , and the exchanging of traditional presents between the royal palace and the Sango Koso main shrine.
What is more, the archaic Yoruba language is still used to transmit the embedded linguistic values of the ancestral identity of the traditional community in general.
For instance by reciting the traditional oral “Oriki-Sango pipe” poems (eulogies), as a form of encoding historical antecedence in an interpretable and intelligible manner, is a clear example of the rich oral heritage related to the ancestor Sango, and indispensable for the conduction of the festival.
The learning of “Oriki -Sango Pipe” poems, chants, prayers, liturgical rites, dancing, divination, drumming and even dancing starts from a
young age in the ancient town.
To ensure that parts of this rich and complex oral legacy, performing arts and apprenticeship are not lost, traditional families transmit their knowledge through the informal method by teaching their male and female children and other members of the community.
This cross-compound learning system is the base of the successful endurance of Oyo traditions, being a gender friendly tradition as women are involved in the activities.
Also, depending largely on craftsmanship, the Sango festival cannot hold without traditional handmade attires, sculptures, liturgical objects and other traditional instruments.
To be continued……….
