Susanne Wenger

God of Small Pox. Clay sculpture, The Sacred Forest. Oshogbo, Nigeria (photograph by Sughra
Raza, June 22, 2008 - aachronym.blogspot.com

1
Obituary: Adunni-Olorisa, Suzanne Wenger (1916-2009)

ERIN WO, ERIN 'LE NDE. AJANAKU SUN BI OKE. SUSSANE

WENGER LO, O R'ORUN AREMABO. SUN UN RE O, IYA
RERE.

THIS IS ANNOUNCING THE TRANSITION OF OUR COLLEAGUE, MENTOR AND MOTHER, SUSANNE
WENGER ADUNNI-OLORISA WHO RESPONDED TO THE CALL OF OLODUMARE SOME HOURS AGO.
SHE WILL BE COMMITTED TO THE BELLY OF MOTHER EARTH THIS EVENNING ACCORDING TO
ORISA BURIAL TRADITION.

“The great Elephant has fallen”. So said Oloye Oyelami, announcing the death and
burial of Suzanne Wenger who passed to the realms of the incarnate dead on
Monday after spending six decades living and working in Osogbo, in the heart of
Yoruba country. The announcement is topical because it presents in clearest terms
the formations of honor necessary to accommodate her passing. You see, Suzanne
Wenger was a Yoruba priestess and one of the few people who truly understood
what it meant to live out one’s beliefs. Adunni-Olorisa was her name and to the
myriad of people who grew up and prospered under her tutelage, she was a mother.
Let it be said that she gave freely of herself and that she worked hard to earn her
place in the pantheon of ancestors who gaze on the benevolent face of the Orisa.

I last saw Suzanne Wenger in 1991. At that time, I was a graduate student at the
University of Nigeria with a lucrative sideline—I served as guide to several American
and European scholars who came to do research in Nigeria. I traveled with them to
various locations of interest and arranged to make their trips problems free while
assisting with matters of language translation and negotiations for access to
relevant research data. Because of a special relationships built up through his
professional practice, many of these scholars usually visited Obiora Udechukwu,
who at that time was my tutor and mentor. Udechukwu’s house was an oasis of
calm logic in the unruly landscape of a Nigeria fragmenting under major economic
problems. He provided free lodging to many of these foreign scholars and managed
their logistics. Since he also had a significant professional presence in Germany, we
had many Germans come through.
That was how I met Norbert Aas from Bayreuth, who published the poetry and art of
Nsukka artists like Obiora and Ada Udechukwu, and Olu Oguibe. Norbert was
interested in research on Osogbo and Obiora arranged for me to travel with him as
a guide. I was born in Ibadan and I speak fluent Ibadan-Yoruba, which is one of the
principal dialects. I had also grown up in Western Nigeria and was familiar with the
terrain: the trip was thus very interesting to me. Norbert and I set out to Osogbo and
arrived late at night. We had a link to Nike, a renowned batik artist who gave us
lodgings for the night and provided someone to take us to Suzanne Wenger’s
house. When we got there, she received us warmly and seemed glad to find

2
someone with whom she could speak German. Wenger and Norbert spoke for a
while in German and gradually, the conversation reverted to English as the hostess,
in impeccable manners, sought to include the rest of us in the room in her
conversation. And she said volumes…

It was impossible to grow up in Yorubaland in the 1970s and not be aware of

Suzanne Wenger. She and Ulli Beier had founded the most significant workshop
institution for arrt and cultural education in Nigeria in the post-independence era.
But while Uli eventually left the country, Wenger remained in Osogbo for the rest of
her life in the house she and Uli built, with very brief visits out of the country for the
purposes of producing and managing art exhibitions of artists from Osogbo. In
1991 when I met her, I was aware of meeting with a legend. As usual, legends
differ from the actual nature of the person or event that becomes legendary.
The Suzanne Wenger I met was a small old woman already frail, who spoke a
heavily Austrian-inflected but fluent Yoruba, and who looked at you with light-green
eyes sharp as glass, highlighted by bold Egyptian style dark outlines. She spoke
about her adopted children in Osogbo, about efforts to secure UNESCO protection
for her work with the sacred grove and her struggle for continued relevance in a
changing world. But surprisingly for me, after an hour of conversation, she spoke to
Norbert of her visit to Austria the previous year, and how out of place she felt.
“I did not fit in,” she said, noting that Europe had become for her a very strange
place. She said then she had returned to Osogbo knowing that she would die there
and that when her time eventually came, she hoped to be buried in the sacred
grove of Osun, somewhere among the sculptures that were her life’s work.
Afterwards, she took us on a tour of the sacred grove. While Uli Beier was busy
creating the Osogbo school of artists, Wenger turned her attention to the Sacred
Grove of Osun, the Goddess of the Waters.
Her focus was astute—the deity was particularly favored by local women, and this
gave her a chance to work on issues of importance to women, in a context where
Beier’s experiments sold a parochial idea of male supremacy in cultural practice
(review the bitter experiences of Nike as a female artist in the Osogbo group, and
the irony of her emerging as one of the few artists from that period with an
independent reputation and success). Wenger devoted the next six decades to
reactivating several aspects of Osun worship, transforming Osun’s grove into a
sculpture garden filled with her own art, modernist sculptures inflected by the
Gesamtkuntwerk aesthetics of late-modern Viennesse art, most famously
concretized by the visionary artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It is hard to explain
the overall impact of these sculptures—they have to be seen to be understood. And
many have come to see them: the Osun festival is now on the international circuit
of global festivals, and it delivers to Osogbo one of the few self-sustaining cultural
tourism sites in Nigeria.

I remembered sitting with Norbert that night at Nike’s house, listening to her bata
drummers perform for us, and discussing the meaning of our conversation with
Wenger. I was touched by her account of how she’d become a stranger in Europe,

3
warm with the knowledge of being a stranger in my own cultures—an Igbo in
Yorubaland, a Yoruba in Igboland. It seemed to me we don’t choose where we
come from but we definitely have the power to choose where we end up. Wenger
had resolutely chosen to become Yoruba, and she is the only white artist that I can
comfortably define as an African artist. For me, her Yoruba heritage is quite
notable: afterall, she spent more time in Osogbo than in her country of birth. I know
of her birthplace, Graz in Austria. It couldn’t be more different from Osogbo, and
Wenger’s choice certainly came with a prize. After the initial flush of foreigners into
Nigeria in the post-independence period, almost all of them left as Nigeria began
the long struggle towards becoming a viable nation. Wenger stayed on when
everyone left. Over the years, she remained devoted to her original intention—to
understand Yoruba culture and thereby help her Osogbo hosts sustain aspects of
their indigenous culture in the contemporary era.

That day, as she spoke to us about her work and showed us around her house, I
listened keenly to the ambient conversations around us. In a place where most
people assume you don’t speak the language, they will usually speak freely and you
can get a sense of how they perceive your presence. No one I heard spoke ill of
Wenger; if anything, they spoke of her with great praise. Yet that too can be seen as
part of a carefully orchestrated process of presentation, the protocols of
appearance. There has been much criticism of the Osogbo initiative of Beier, which
Wenger sustained in some manner for years after Beier left.
Beier subscribed to the ideal that true African art must be unmediated by exposure
to the external world in any form, and Wenger must have believed this too at some
point: they both made great effort to shield their students from eternal influences
to the extent of minimizing the need for Western-style education. In stating this
fact, we must not assume that the students were thereby illiterate: Yoruba
educational protocols are equally formal and take a substantial investment in time
to master (try learning 1000 proverbs and tell me how easy you find it: then try to
master the 256 Odu of the Ifa oracle, among other bodies of knowledge). There has
been much criticism of this attitude of Beier, and Wenger got her share of blame.
Many accused her of setting herself up as a principal arbiter among Osogbo people
and their gods. In fact, there were times when it seemed that Wenger had become
a spokesperson for Osun worship in general. Some of these accusations point to
the errors of an acolyte in earlier stages of her education.
In her old age, she had become wise and less assuming. Some of the blame also
lay with Western scholars who are interested in Africa art only if they can find a
Western interlocutor to explain it to them. The Osogbo experiment gained immense
critical validation in Germany and Austria: it was inevitable that Beier and Wenger
would emerge as primary interlocutors for these initiatives. When Beier left,
Wenger continued to manage the exposure of the Osogbo artists. In time this led to
conflict with some of the artists who wanted greater control over their own
creativity and professional reputations. Wenger can be indicted for attempting to
hold on for too long but what mother doesn’t want to hold on to her children for far
longer than is appropriate? The grown up children left, and Wenger turned her
attention to a younger generation. She has nurtured at least three generations of

4
artists during the six decades she spent in Osogbo. She did much good and should
be highly commended for her devotion.

As I listened to Wenger talk wistfully about her life in the sacred grove, it occurred
to me she was in a manner of speaking, a lost soul, wandering the edge of memory
where intentions are subsumed into the reality of old age, wondering if her devotion
to the deity guaranteed her a place among the ancestors. I have to say it does: a
lifetime of devotion is its own reward. Oloye Oyelami—her student and one of her
“sons”—states clearly that Adunni-Olorisa was buried according to Orisa burial
customs. I am sure they sang her oriki (praisesongs) and that her name was
incorporated into the oriki of the Olosun lineage in Osogbo—the revered priestesses
of the goddess of the waters. I am sure she was sent off to the afterlife with the
formal admonitions: “Ti e ba d’orun, e ma je’kolo; oun to won ba nje nibe ni k’e ba
won je” (when you get to heaven, do not eat earthworms; whatever they eat there
you should partake with them). In time, her memory will pass into myth, to be
shaped (by those who knew her and those who didn’t) into accounts of her
legendary acts. She has ascended into the realms of the ancestors: she will be
reborn into the lineage, and in the future, they will speak of the reincarnation of
Adunni-Olorisa, of a newborn child with diamantine eyes who gazes at the world
with the wisdom of the great elders. Osun will be here waiting for her, and Adunni-
Olorisa’s ancestral spirit will be here, waiting as well. May her soul rest in peace.
ASE!!!

Blog of S. Okwunodu Ogbechie

designed and implemented by BILCOM

5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Austrian Artist Becomes Nigerian Ancestor
Posted on May 21, 2009

By Gbemisola Olujobi

Wenger certainly crossed that boundary. A veritable bridge between two very
different worlds and cultures, she left her native Austria as a young woman and
found her place among the Yoruba of Nigeria. Dubbed “the white priestess of black
magic” by the international media, Wenger rose from novice seeker to high
priestess of Osun, the spirit-goddess of the waters of life, who represents love and
maternity in Yoruba mythology. Affectionately renamed Adunni Olorisha (“the
cherished one who is deeply committed to the gods”), she lived among her adopted
people and served their gods faithfully for 58 years until she died recently at the age
of 93.

As rituals in honor of her soul were conducted according to Orisha burial traditions
after she was laid to rest in the sacred grove of Osun in Osogbo, the Yoruba town
she made her home, gurus of Yoruba traditional religion agreed that she had
earned her place among “the living dead” and was being heralded into the fold of
Yoruba ancestors. This sentiment was strongly expressed in tributes that marked
her passing.

“Her internment completes Susan Wenger’s transformation into a spirit, as

devotees will henceforth make supplications to her, too.”

“She is not dead. She lives through her works. She only has become an Orisha. She
only slept, she didn’t die.”

“Susanne’s knowledge of the behavior and character of all the deities means she
has actually become Yoruba.”

“She was well versed in the Yoruba pantheon of the gods with which she was
actively engaged.”

“She was a significant member of the Yoruba cultural leaders.”

“She personified the spirit of the sacred grove, the river goddess to which she
dedicated nearly her entire adult life, worshipping and adoring.”

Wenger was no ordinary adventurer/fun seeker who dazzled naïve Africans with her
white skin and European accent. She worked her butt off, as Americans would say,
to earn her ancestral stripes. Now, how did an Austrian girl who was born into a

13
Christian family end up as high priestess and custodian-in-chief of the shrine of a
Yoruba goddess?

Wenger was born during the First World War, in 1915, in the town of Graz, Austria.
She studied art in Graz and Vienna, and was part of the famous Vienna “Art-Club.”
She spent some time in Italy and Switzerland after World War II and had exhibitions
with the most famous artists of the time in the gallery Des Eaux Vives in Zurich.

Wenger’s journey to Nigeria began in 1949 when she went to Paris, where she met
Ulli Beier, a German linguist. They soon became an item. Beier accepted a posting
as a phonetician at the University College, Ibadan (Nigeria) shortly after. However,
he had to be married to take up the position, so the couple began to make wedding
plans.

At the wedding in a registry office in London, the eclectic couple presented the
registrar with a selection of curtain rings in place of the customary wedding rings.
When the registrar protested, saying, “A wedding is not a silly joke,” they replied:
“How do you know?”

They arrived in Ibadan in 1950 and settled into life there, Beier as a teacher and
Wenger as an artist. From Ibadan they moved to Ede (another Yoruba town) to
escape what Wenger called the “artificial university compound.” There, Beier
continued to build his renown as a teacher, art/culture scholar and documentary
expert and founded the Mbari Mbayo Cultural Movement, which was the precursor
of modern Nigerian art and literature. Wenger, on the other hand, according to
Beier, “quickly became part of the local culture.”

While this cultural integration was taking place, Wenger met Ajagemo, a powerful
Obatala priest who became her guru and initiated her to traditional Yoruba religion
and the world of Orishas. Wenger’s experience with Ajagemo was surreal. “He took
me by the hand and led me into the spirit world,” she told a French documentary
maker in 2005. “I did not speak Yoruba and he did not speak English. Our only
intercourse was the language of the trees.”

Wenger was hooked. She was initiated as a priestess of Osun and Obatala. Beier
said his wife found her ori inu (real essence) in the spirituality of Osun. When her
transformation was complete, there was no going back. Nothing could take Wenger
from her “Yoruba roots.” She resolved to stay in Oshogbo for the rest of her life. She
and Beier separated and he returned to Europe. She stayed in Oshogbo and
eventually married a traditional Yoruba drummer, Ayansola Oniru, who drummed
the gods into frenzy for the acolyte.

14
Wenger went on to adopt 15 children whom she nurtured in the traditional Yoruba
way. She breathed her last in their warm embrace even as she was properly
heralded into “the other side” by the elements. According to accounts of her death,
a sudden rain started around midday and ended abruptly in Oshogbo, the Yoruba
town that was home to Wenger. Remarkably, this was in the middle of the dry
season (Nigeria has two main seasons; the dry season and the rainy season).
Immediately after the rain, Wenger asked, “What day of the week is it?” “What time
of the day is it?” When she got the answers, she said, “It’s time to go. It’s good. It’s
OK,” and took her last breath.

Wenger could not have departed in a different way. In one of her many interviews
on spirituality, she had said, “All human activity is spiritual. You cannot do even an
office job without its being spiritual activity. The spiritual aspect of life is the net of
life. Life and spirituality are one.”

Adunni Olorisha came to be acclaimed as a champion of Yoruba traditional religion,

especially in Oshogbo. According to an account given in a BBC interview, when she
first made contact with the Yorubas, she found their traditional culture in decline
and under threat of being wiped out by missionaries who branded it “black magic”
or “juju.” She encouraged Yorubas not to give up their traditional ways, even though
in many cases, not giving up traditional culture meant rejecting formal education.
The schools were run by Muslim or Christian organizations that did not tolerate what
they saw as pagan beliefs.

One of her adopted children, Sangodare Gbadegesin Ajala, recalls Wenger’s lessons
in decolonization. The young Ajala had badly wanted to acquire Western education,
but his father was a staunch devotee of the traditional Yoruba religion who refused
to let his children go to school and be baptized into Christianity, as was the practice
in those days. So there was no chance of him being educated as long as he was
under his father’s ward. He thought a white woman would understand his thirst for
Western education and help him fulfill his dream. He therefore found his way into
Wenger’s life and moved in with her. But he was in for the shock of his life. Six
months after moving in, he asked Wenger if he could go to school.

“She shouted: ‘No! You cannot go to school. They will turn you into a Christian and
your life will be over!’” he remembers.

Though Ajala never got that Western education, he is highly educated in the
traditions of Yoruba spirit gods. He is today the high priest of Sango, the lightning
god. And from this vantage position, he says he realizes how important it is that
Yoruba traditions have been preserved.

15
To ensure that children are not torn between getting a Western education and
learning their own traditions as he was, Ajala plans to build a school where children
receive Western education while learning about the traditions of the Orishas.

Although Wenger is internationally famous for her oil paintings, batiks and
drawings, she reinvented her art for the Orishas she had come to know and love.
She and a group of local artisans and devotees built statues in the sacred grove to
celebrate and immortalize the gods. Said Wenger, “We took the essence of the gods
and made the icons from those feelings, by connecting to the soul of the materials
and building the statues to the gods from that soul. It is sacred art, built under the
orders of the gods. Every sculpture is a shrine in which the god is invited to live.”

Wenger described the sacred grove of Oshogbo as “a refuge for homeless gods who
have been abandoned by modern society.”

Islamization and Christianization certainly ensured that the gods and indeed
traditional religion were kept in the cooler by many who could not reconcile them
with their newfound faiths. Contrary to what the missionaries believed and
propagated, however, traditional African belief is overwhelmingly monotheistic.
There may be spirits and ancestors (very much like Christian angels and saints)
guiding the affairs of the living, but there is only one God. Early missionaries got this
all wrong and delighted in cataloging legions of “heathen gods” worshipped by
“animist Africans.”

But Wenger found a meeting point between the Orishas and the new religions. She
argued that “Orisha is merely a name which represents the supernatural forces
which are basic expressions of life. It doesn’t matter what you call it. It is a ‘sacred
force’ that represents the experience of life that informs human beingness. As with
all religions, there is no true way to explain it along rational lines without leeching it
of its meaning and intensely personal quality. You are a part of it and it is a part of
you. You may, as so many have done, push it aside, but it remains in you, in all of
us.”

She took great pains to try to get those who were torn between their traditional
religion and their new faiths understand this.

Every Yoruba town had sacred groves that were sanctuaries or ceremonial homes
for the gods. Christianization and Islamization had gradually eaten into the
traditional religion, all but wiping out the groves. The Oshogbo grove was a lucky
exception, all because of an Austrian woman. Without Wenger’s art and devotion,
the virgin forest may well have been built over and lost forever, like so many others
in Nigeria.

16
With the “New Sacred Art,” as the efforts of Wenger and her fellow artists came to
be known, she transformed the sacred groves of Osun-Oshogbo into a garden filled
with statues. Art historian Okwunodu Ogbechie describes them as “modernist
sculptures inflected by the Gesamtkunstwerk aesthetics of late-modern Viennesse
art, most famously concretized by the visionary artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.”

According to Ogbechie, “It is hard to explain the overall impact of these sculptures.
They have to be seen to be understood.” This may be because they are beyond art.

The grove was also beyond an ordinary forest to Wenger, as those who sought to
gentrify it soon found out. Said Wenger, “Because the place is crowded by homeless
gods, the spirits in the forest are strong.” She put everything on the line to protect
the grove and its “homeless gods,” on one occasion lying in front of a bulldozer to
prevent the trees and sculptures from being destroyed by a man who bought the
grove and wanted to build a house there.

The sacred grove was later designated a national monument by the Nigerian
government through the National Commission for Museums and Monuments. The
icons that Wenger built for the gods and the other materials in the grove also were
classified as antiquities.

The ultimate recognition of Wenger’s devotion to the grove and the tradition it
represents came when the Osun grove was designated a world-class tourism site on
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World
Heritage List in 2005. Wenger’s efforts were crowned when she was named
“Member of the Federal Republic,” a national honor in Nigeria.

Wenger’s physical form will be sorely missed at the Osun-Oshogbo festival this year.
The festival, held to worship the river goddess, takes place at the sacred grove every
August and attracts thousands of devotees and tourists from all over the world. Over
the years, Wenger came to be known as a personification of the spirit of the river
goddess and the moving force behind the festival.

It is certain that libations will be poured to the spirit of Adunni Olorisha at the
festival. Many devotees will also send their supplications to Olodumare (God) and
Osun (the river goddess) through her. Indeed, Suzanne Wenger “is not dead. She has
only become an Orisha. She only slept, she didn’t die.”

blackartstudio.com

From Suzanne Wenger to Adunni Olorisha: The late Wenger in Africa.

17
Oshun
Wikipedia

Temple of Ọṣun in Oṣogbo, Nigeria.

For the state in Nigeria, see Osun State.
Ọṣun (or Oshun, Ochun) (pronounced [ɔʃún]) in Yoruba mythology, is a spirit-goddess
(Orisha) who reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy.[1] She is
worshipped also in Brazilian Candomblé Ketu, with the name spelled Oxum. She should
not be confused, however, with a different Orisha of a similar name spelled "Osun," who
is the protector of the Ori, or our heads and inner Orisha.
Ọṣun is beneficent and generous, and very kind. She does, however, have a horrific
temper, though it is difficult to anger her. She is married to Ṣàngó, the god of thunder,
and is his favorite wife because of her excellent cooking skills. One of his other wives,
Oba, was her rival. They are the goddesses of the Ọṣun and Oba rivers, which meet in a
turbulent place with difficult rapids.

Santería
In Cuban Santería, Oshun (sometimes spelled Ochún or Ochun) is an Orisha of love,
maternity and marriage. She has been syncretized with Our Lady of Charity (La Virgen
de la Caridad del Cobre), Cuba's patroness. She is associated with the color yellow,
metals gold and copper, peacock feathers, mirrors, and anything of beauty, her favorable
day of the week is Saturday and the number she is associated with is 5.

18
In one story, she had to become a prostitute to feed her children and the other Orishas
removed her children from her home. Oshun went insane from grief and wore the same
white dress every day; it eventually turned yellow. Aje'-Shaluga, another Orisha, fell in
love with her while she was washing her dress. He gave her money and gems which he
collected from the bottom of the river he lived in. They were married and she was
reunited with her children.
Oshun has had many husbands. Different myths attribute husbands to her, including
Erinle, Oshosi, Orisha Oko, and Aje'-Shaluga. She is also the sexual partner of Shango,
and Ogun.
Her children include the Ibeji twins, Idowu, and Logun Ede.
Osun- by a worshipper, follower, avatar and prietess of this Munificent Mother
According to the Yoruba elders, Osun is the "unseen mother present at every gathering",
because Osun is the Yoruba understanding of the cosmological forces of water, moisture,
and attraction. Therefore she is omnipresent and omnipotent. Her power is represented in
another Yoruba scripture which reminds us that "no one is an enemy to water" and
therefore everyone has need of and should respect and revere Osun , as well as her
followers.
Osun is the force of harmony. Harmony we see as beauty, feel as love, and experience as
ecstasy. Osun according to the ancients was the only female Irunmole amongst the 401
sent from the spirit realm to create the world. As such, she is revered as "YeYe" - the
sweet mother of us all. When the male Irunmole attempted to subjegate Osun due to her
femaleness she removed her divine energy, called ase by the Yoruba, from the project of
creating the world and all subsequent efforts at creation were in vain. It was not until
visiting with the Supreme Being, Olodumare, and begging Osun pardon under the advice
of Olodumare that the world could continue to be created. BUT not before Osun had
given birth to a son. This son became Elegba, the great conduit of ase in the Universe and
also the eternal and infernal trickster.
Osun is known as Yalode- the mother of things outside the home, due to her business
acumen. She is also known as Laketi, she who has ears, because of how quickly and
effectively she answers prayers. When she possesses her followers she dances, flirts and
then weeps- because no one can love her enough and the world is not as beautiful as she
knows it could be[citation needed].

Roads of Oshun in Lukumi

In Cuban Lukumi tradition, Oshun has many roads, or manifestations. Some of these
include:
Oshun Ibu Ikole -- Oshun the Vulture. This Oshun is associated with Witches (Aje), and
her symbols are the vulture, and the mortar and pestle (both of which are symbols of
witchcraft). In Cuba, her myths say that this Oshun saved the world by flying the prayers
of the dying world up to the Sun (Orun), where Olodumare lives, however in West Africa
this myth is attributed to Yemoja.
Oshun Ibu Anya -- Oshun of the Drums. This Oshun is the patron of dancing and the
Anya drums. She is said to dance ceaselessly to forget her troubles.

19
Oshun Ibu Yumu -- This Oshun is the eldest Oshun. She sits at the bottom of the river,
knitting.
Oshun Ibu D'Oko -- Oshun, the wife of Orisha Oko. This Oshun is pictured as a furrow to
be plowed and a giant vulva, while her husband Orisha Oko is a farmer and pictured as a
giant phallus. This is one of Oshun's most obviously procreative manifestations.
Oshun Ololodi -- Oshun, the diviner. This Oshun is the wife of Orunmila, the Orisha of
Ifa divination.
Oshun Ibu Akuaro -- Oshun, the Quail. The children of this manifestation of Oshun are
said to be very nervous people.

Further reading

• Joseph M. Murphy, Mei-Mei Sanford, Osun Across the Waters : A Yoruba Goddess in African
and the Americas
• S. Solagbade Popoola, "Ikunle Abiyamo: It is on Bent Knees that I gave Birth" 2007. Asefin
Media Publication
• Dr. Diedre Badejo, "Oshun Seegesi: The Elegant Deity of Wealth, Power, and Femininity"

Orisha
This article is about a type of spirit. For other uses of Orisha / Orixa , see Orisha
(disambiguation).
An Orisha (also spelled Orisa or Orixa) is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the
manifestations of Olodumare (God) in the Yoruba spiritual or religious system
(Olodumare is also known by various other names including Olorun, Eledumare, Eleda
and Olofin-Orun). This religion has found its way throughout the world and is now
expressed in several varieties which include Candomblé, Lucumí/Santería, Vodou,
Shango in Trinidad, Anago, Oyotunji as well as some aspects of Umbanda, Winti, Obeah,
Vodun and as well as many others. These varieties or spiritual lineages as they are called
are practiced throughout areas of Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, Togo, Brazil, Cuba,
Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad and
Tobago, the United States, and Venezuela among others. As interest in African
indigenous religions (spiritual systems) grows, Orisha communities and lineages can be
found in parts of Europe and Asia as well. While estimates vary, there could be more than
100 million adherents of this spiritual tradition worldwide.[citation needed]

Beliefs and rituals

The Orisha faith believes in a Supreme Being, named Olodumare. Adherents of the
religion appeal to specific manifestations of Olodumare in the form of the various
Orishas. Ancestors and culture-heroes held in reverence can also be enlisted for help with
day-to-day problems. Faithful believers will also generally consult a geomantic
divination specialist, known as a babalawo or Iyanifa, to mediate in their problems. This
practice is known as Ifa divination, and is an important part of life throughout West

20
Africa and the rest of the diaspora world. UNESCO, the cultural and scientific education
arm of the United Nations, declared Ifa a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage
of Humanity in 2005. An important part of the traditional Yoruba faith is that the Yoruba
believe their ancestor Oduduwa fell from the sky and brought with him much of what is
now their belief system. Part of this is the belief that daily life depends on proper
alignment and knowledge of one's Ori. Ori literally means the head, but in spiritual
matters is taken to mean an inner portion of the soul which determines personal destiny
and success. Ase, which is also spelled “Axe,” “Axé,” “Ashe,” or “Ache,” is the life-force
which runs though all things, living and inanimate. Ashe is the power to make things
happen. It is an affirmation which is used in greetings and prayers, as well as a concept
about spiritual growth. Orisha devotees strive to obtain Ashe through Iwa-Pele or gentle
and good character, and in turn they experience alignment with the Ori, or what others
might call inner peace or satisfaction with life.

New World
Many Yoruba people were brought to the Americas during the Maafa, along with many
other ethnic nationalities from West, Central, and parts of East Africa. Yoruba religious
beliefs are among the most recognizable African-derived traditions in the Americas,
perhaps due to the comparatively late arrival of large numbers of Yoruba in the Americas
and the conglomerative and spiritually tolerant nature of the faith. The Orisa faith is often
closely aligned to the beliefs of the Gbe ethnic nationalities (including Fon, Ewe, Mahi,
and Egun), and there have been centuries of creative cross-fertilization between the faith
communities in Africa and in the Americas. In many countries of the African diaspora,
Yoruba and Gbe beliefs have also influenced and become influenced by Catholicism and
faiths which originate in the Kongo-Angolan cultural region of West-Central Africa.
These include Palo in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Umbanda in Brazil and,
according to some sources, the Petro rites of Haitian Vodou.
Santeria (or Lukumĺ) is a set of related religious systems which use Catholic saints as a
mask to hide traditional Yoruba beliefs. Saints and other Catholic religious figures are
used as disguises for Orishas. However, this process should not be confused with
syncretism, as the Catholic saints were never worshiped.

Pantheon
The Orisha pantheon includes Aganju, Obalu Aye, Erinle, Eshu/Elegba, Yemaya, Nana
Buluku, Obà, Obatala, Ochosi|Osoosi, Oshumare, Ogoun|Ogunda, Oko, Olofi, Olokun,
Olorun, Orunmila, Oshun, Osun, Oya, Ozain, and Shango, among countless others. In the
Lucumi tradition, Osun and Oshun are different Orishas. Oshun is the beautiful and
benevolent Orisha of love, life, marriage, sex and money while Osun is the protector of
the Ori, or our heads and inner Orisha. The Yoruba also venerate their ancestral spirits
through Egungun masquerade, Orò, Irumole, Gelede and Ibeji,the orisha of Twins (which
is no wonder since the Yoruba have the world's highest incidence of twin births of any

21
group). In fact the world capital of twins is the Yoruba town of Igboora with an average
of 150 twins per 1 000 birth.

Partial list of Orishas

• Nana Buluku (Nana) - female deity of creation, old sky mother and
primordial swamp spirit, associated with the moon and often
identified with Iemanja
• Olokun - guardian of the deep ocean, the abyss, and signifies
unfathomable wisdom, also patron of African diaspora
• Obatala (Obatalá, Oxalá, Orixalá, Orisainlá) - father of orishas and
humankind, deity of light, spiritual purity, and moral uprightness
• Orunmila (Orunla, Ifá) - deity of wisdom, divination, destiny, and
foresight
• Eshu (Eleggua, Exú, Esu, Elegba, Legbara, Papa Legba) - Eshu is the
messenger between the human and divine worlds, god of duality,
crossroads and beginnings, and also a phallic and fertility god(a god
of life) and the delieverer of souls to the underworld (a god of
Death). Eshu is recognized as a trickster and child-like, while
Eleggua is Eshu under the influence of Obatala.
• Ochumare (Oshumare, Oxumare) - rainbow-serpent deity, orisha of
movement and activity, guardian of children and associated with
umbilical cord
• Iemanja (Yemaja, Imanja, Yemayá, Jemanja, Yemalla, Yemana, Yemanja,
Yemaya, Yemayah, Yemoja, Ymoja, Nanã, La Sirène, LaSiren, Mami Wata) -
divine mother goddess, divine goddess of the sea and loving mother
of mankind, daughter of Obatala and wife of Aganju
• Aganju (Aganyu, Agayu) - Father of Shango, he is also said to be
Shango's brother in other stories. Aganju is said to be the orisha of
volcanoes, mountains, and the desert.
• Shango (Shangó, Xango, Changó, Chango, Nago Shango) - warrior god of
thunder, fire, sky father, represents male power and sexuality
• Oba (Obba) - Shango's jealous wife, goddess of marriage and
domesticity, daughter of Iemanja
• Oya (Oyá, Oiá, Iansã, Yansá, Iansan, Yansan) - warrior goddess of the wind,
sudden change, hurricanes, and underworld gates, a powerful
sorceress and primary lover of Shango
• Ogoun (Ogun, Ogúm, Ogou) - deity of iron, war, labour, sacrifice, politics,
and technology (e.g. railroads)
• Oshun (Oshún, Ọṣun, Oxum, Ochun, Osun, Oschun) - goddess of rivers, love,
feminine beauty, fertility, and art, also one of Shango's lovers and
beloved of Ogoun
• Ibeji - the sacred twins, represent youth and vitality

22
 • Ochosi (Oxósse, Ocshosi, Osoosi, Oxossi) - hunter and the scout of the
orishas, deity of the accused and those seeking justice or searching
for something
• Ozain (Osain, Osanyin) - Orisha of the forest, he owns the Omiero, a holy
liquid consisting of many herbs, the liquid through which all saints
and ceremonies have to proceed. Ozain is the keeper and guardian
of the herbs, and is a natural healer.
• Babalu Aye (Omolu, Soponna, Shonponno, Obaluaye, Sakpata, Shakpana) - deity
of disease and illness (particularly smallpox, leprosy, and now AIDS),
also orisha of healing and the earth, son of Iemanja
• Erinle (Inle) - orisha of medicine, healing, and comfort, physician to the
gods
• Oko (Okko) - orisha of agriculture and the harvest
• Osun - ruler of the head, Ori

Iansan/Iansã, Orixá of wind, Nanã, The oldest Orixá in

Eshu/Eleggua Pair of Ibeji
change Candomblé

Babalu
Iansan/Iansã
Aye/Omolú

Further reading

• John Mason, Black Gods - Orisa Studies in the New World

• John Mason, Olokun: Owner of Rivers and Seas ISBN 1-881244-05-9
• John Mason, Orin Orisa: Songs for selected Heads ISBN 1-881244-06-7
• Lydia Cabrera, El Monte: Igbo-Nfinda, Ewe Orisha/Vititi Nfinda ISBN 0-89729-009-7
• [Chief Priest Ifayemi Elebuibon], Apetebii: The Wife of Orunmila ISBN 0-9638787-1-9
• [J. Omosade Awolalu], Yoruba Beliefs & Sacrificial Rites ISBN 0-9638787-3-5
• Baba Ifa Karade, The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts
• William Bascom, Sixteen Cowries
• David M. O'Brien, Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye
v. City of Hialeah
• James T. Houk, Spirits, Blood, and Drums: The Orisha Religion of Trinidad. 1995. Temple
University Press.
• Raul Canizares, Cuban Santeria

23
 • Robert Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit
• S. Solagbade Popoola, Ikunle Abiyamo: It is on Bent Knees that I gave Birth. 2007. Asefin
Media Publication
• Jo Anna Hunter, “Oro Pataki Aganju: A Cross Cultural Approach Towards the Understanding of
the Fundamentos of the Orisa Aganju in Nigeria and Cuba.” In Orisa Yoruba God and
Spiritual Identity in Africa and the Diaspora, edited by Toyin Falola, Ann Genova. New
Jersey: Africa World Press, Inc. 2006.

External links

• Irunmole: sharing perspectives on Ifa and Orisa

• Ijo Orisa Asaforitifa: a community of West African Ifa/Orisa Tradition of Nigeria and Benin
Republic
• OrishaNet: A website written by a Lucumi high priest (Babalawo)
• The Palo and Lukumi Organization - Website written by Lukumi Orisha-Ifa High Priest, aka:
Babalawo
• Ile Orunmila Temple
• List of Orishas
• Orisha descriptions
• Orishas information and Santeria directory
• Baba Alawoye.com Baba'Awo Awoyinfa Ifaloju, showcasing Ifa using web media 2.0 (blogs,
podcasting, video & photocasting)
• OsunPriestess.com Orisa and Yoruba religion resource. Blog, Travel to Nigeria the source of
Ifa and Orisa veneration. Traditional temples in U.S.A. Orisa descriptions and
documentaries.

Obatala
Obatala is also a genus of spiders (Amaurobiidae)
In Yoruba orisha (also spelt orisa or orixa) veneration, Obàtálá, through the power of
God, the Supreme Being, (called by various names in the Yoruba language such as
Olodumare, Eledumare, Olofin-Orun, Eleda, and Olorun), made human bodies, and
Olorun (God) breathed life into them. Obàtálá is also the owner of all ori or heads. Any
orisha may lay claim to an individual, but until that individual is initiated into the
priesthood of that orisha, Obàtálá still owns that head. This stems from the belief that the
soul resides in the head.
According to mythical stories Obatala created "defective" (handicapped) individuals
while drunk on palm wine, making him the patron deity of such people. People born with
congenital defects are called 'eni orisa': literally, "people of Obatala". He is also referred
to as the orisha of the north. He is always dressed in white, hence the meaning of his
name, Obatala (King or ruler of the white cloth). His worshippers strive to practice moral
correctness as unblemished as his robe.

In Candomblé, Obatalá (Oxalá) is the oldest "Orixa funfun" ("white deity"), referring to
spiritual purity and pure light, both physically and symbolically as in the "light" of
consciousness). In the Bahia State (Brazil), Obatala has been syncretized with Our Lord

24
of Bonfim and is the subject of a large syncretic religious celebration, the Festa do
Bonfim, which takes place in January in the city of Salvador and includes the wash, with
a special water, made with flowers, the stairs of the church.
In Santería, "Regla de Ocha branch", Obàtálá has been syncretized with Our Lady of
Mercy.

According to mythical stories Obatala is the eldest of all orisha and was granted authority
to create the earth. Before he could return to heaven and report to Olodumare however,
his rival Oduduwa (also called Oduwa, Oodua, Odudua or Eleduwa), often described as
his younger brother, usurped his position by taking the satchel and returning to heaven. A
great feud ensued between the two that is re-enacted every year in Ile Ife, Nigeria.
Ultimately, Oduduwa and his sons were able to rule without Obatala's consent.
In Yoruba theology, Obatala must never be worshipped with palm wine, palm oil or salt.
His worshippers may eat palm oil and salt, but never taste palm wine.

Oriki (Praise Names)

• Oluwa Aiye or Oluwa Aye - Lord of the Earth

• Alabalase - He who has divine authority
• Baba Arugbo - Old Master or Father
• Baba Araye - Master or Father of all human beings (lit. citizens of the earth)
• Orisanla (also spelt Orisainla, Orishanla or Orishainla) or Oshanla - The arch divinity

External links

• OBATALA - ARTHUR HALL Web Site, www.ileife.org

• Alawoye.com Baba'Awo Awoyinfa Ifaloju, showcasing Ifa using web media 2.0 (blogs,
podcasting, video & photocasting)
•

Ulli Beier
Ulli Beier (1922- ) is a German editor, writer and scholar, who had a pioneering role in
developing drama, poetry and visual arts in Nigeria, as well as visual arts and literature in
Papua New Guinea.

He was born in Glowitz, Germany, in July 1922. His father was a medical doctor and an
appreciator of art and raised his son to embrace the arts. After the coming of the Nazi
party to power, the Beiers, who are non-practicing Jews, left for Palestine. In Palestine,
while his family were briefly detained as enemy aliens by the British authorities, Ulli
Beier was able to earn a BA as an external student of the University of London. However,

25
he later moved to London to earn a degree in Phonetics. A few years later, he was given a
faculty position at the University of Ibadan to teach Phonetics.

Career
While at the University, he transferred from the Phonetics department to the Mural
Studies department. It was at the Mural Studies department he became interested in
Yoruba culture and arts. Though, he was a teacher at Ibadan, he ventured outside the city
and lived in nearby cities, of Ede, Ilobu and Osogbo, this gave him an avenue to see the
spatial environment of different Yoruba communities. In 1956, after visiting a Black
writers conference in Berlin, Ulli Beier returned to Ibadan and founded the magazine
"Black Orpheus", the name was inspired by Jean Paul Sartre's famous essay "Orphée
Noir". The journal quickly became the leading space for Nigerian authors to write and
publish their works. The journal became known for its innovative works and literary
excellence and was widely acclaimed. Later in 1961, Beier, co-founded the Mbari club
also called Mbari-Mbayo, a place for new writers, dramatist and artists, to meet and
perform their work. Later he directed the Iwalewa Hous, an art centre at the University of
Bayreuth in Germany.

Ulli Beier is known for his effort in translating African works. He emerged as one of the
scholars who introduced African writers to a large international audience for his works in
translating plays of dramatists such as Duro Ladipo and publishing "Modern Poetry" an
anthology of African poems, published in 1963.
Beier left Nigeria in 1968, he worked in Papua New Guinea and intermittently returned to
Nigeria for brief periods of time. While in Papua New Guinea, he co-organised with
Georgina Beier the country's first art exhbition, at the University of Papua New Guinea’s
Centre for New Guinea Cultures, featuring artwork by Timothy Akis. Ulli Beier created
the literary periodical Kovave: A Journal of New Guinea literature, which reproduced
works by Papua New Guinean artists including Timothy Akis and Mathias Kauage.[1] His
efforts have been described as significant in facilitating the emergence of Papua New
Guinean literature.[2]
He returned to his native country of Germany in 1981.

Published works

• Voices of Independence: New Black Writing from Papua New Guinea, New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1980. 251 pp.s
• Editor: The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, 1999.
• Black Orpheus: An Anthology of New African and Afro-American Stories, 1965.
• Thirty Years of Oshogbo Art, Iwalewa House, Bayreuth, 1991.
• Neue Kunst in Afrika: das Buch zur Austellung, Reimer, Berlin, 1980 (Contemporary Art in
Africa, Pall Mall Press, London, 1968).

26
 Adunni-Susanne Wenger-School in Osogbo, Nigeria

There has been close contact between Friedrichshain and Osogbo since
1999 - through the association for third world aid, SONED-Friedrichshain,
and a group of traditional artists in the Nigerian town. Osogbo is in the
south-western part of Nigeria and is renowned as a major center of
traditional Yoruba culture.

Austrian artist Susanne Wenger (born 1915) arrived in Osogbo in

the early 1950s, and was fascinated, learning about and absorbing the
traditional mythologies of the local culture. Once initiated she became
Adunni Olorisa, and worked with an art group New Sacred Art to create a
giant sculpture park in the holy grove of the river goddess Osun. It was
nominated in 2004 as a Unesco World Heritage site.

27
 We are working to build the Adunni-Susanne-Wenger school to help
preserve the cultural heritage of the Yoruba people, with the aim of
developing an "international institute for Yoruba ancient philosophy". The
school will offer non-discriminatory education to all children, including
those who subscribe to the Yoruba religion. The state curriculum will be
taught, but enriched by lessons in

- Yoruba language and philosophy

- traditional appreciation of nature,
- healing traditions aided by the school's medicinal herbal
- garden, religion and mythology and handicrafts.

As it progresses, the school will open up to all ages, from nursery to adult

28
education. Fees will be set according to means, students will have a say
and gender equality will be central to the ethos. We will develop a modern
pedagogic concept by working closely with various schools and education
institutions in Germany. The project will help the children of Osogbo gain
a modern education rooted in their traditions.

To do this we need money. We have applied for official development

assistance, but need to raise 25% to get it - a sum of 80,000 euro. We and
our Nigerian partners need your support to do this and are therefore
asking for a donation.

SONED-Friedrichshain was established in 1997 as a non-profit

association - donations are tax-deductable. When making a donation
please include your name and address for the donation receipt.

Contact us at 004930/2945401 if you have questions or require further

29
 information about the project. You are also welcome to send us an
email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots,
you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Yours sincerely, The Nigeria team Berlin, March 2008

SONED-Friedrichshain
Registered association to the district court Charlottenburg No.: 16898 NZ

30