Date: 25th August, 2013
Venue: Alafin of Oyo Palace, Oyo
The culture of Nigeria has been misconstrued for a foreign culture.
The socio-economic development of some African countries, especially Nigeria is built on the foreign culture. We have seen examples of countries all over the world where their socio-economic development is built on the culture of the people.
Countries like China, who have made tremendous progress in technology, medicine and other aspects of life, built their development on their culture.
This progress has gone beyond their local environment, the Chinese is gradually becoming a world power,
why can’t we in Africa, why cant we in Nigeria appreciate our cultural value?
THE WORLD SANGO FESTIVAL
It is one of the reasons why the World Sango Festival is coming at this time.
We want to go back to the basis and appreciate our culture. A man who has no respect for his cultural value has lost his essence of livelihood, his essence of living.
Therefore, the Kabiyesi, Iku Baba Yeye, Alaafin of Oyo, the hero of Yoruba land, reasoned that Alaafin Sango, the third Alaafin of Oyo, who reigned in 1078, should be remembered, that is why we havedecided to hold the festival. Sango festival had existed over the years but the World Sango Festival is the new creation, is the new brand that is coming, to harness from all over the world, about 42 countries in the world where Sango is recognized with the population of 160 million people, to bring the headquarters to Nigeria, for them to have a cultural renaissance, to begin to appreciate their ancestral home which is Nigeria, this is the basic essence of the festival.
Who are the brains behind this concept?
Sango is a native of Oyo, so in the whole of Brazil, there are over 700million in Bahia that are Sango followers, in the whole of Argentina, there are over 1.7million people. As a matter of fact like I said everywhere in the world where Sango is respected, worshiped and followed, they could trace the root of Sango to Nigeria. So we are saying let Nigeria, let Oyo State be the international headquarters, be the world headquarters so that we don’t lose our culture, so that Bahia in future, so that Cuba in future would not say they are the original owner of Sango. Oyo is the ancestral home of Sango and that is why we have said let us have the festival with the headquarters in Oyo. It is the Alaafin Oyo, Oba Olayiwola Adeyemi’s III concept. He has appointed our firm, Logical Media Group as event and media consultant, which I represent and we have craved on and we have been branded to ensure that this meets international standard. This festival has gone to every country of the world where the tradition of Yoruba is respected and you’ll see that a lot of them would come to Nigeria.
Who are the sponsors, any foreign support?
The interest goes beyond Cuba or Brazil, all these countries have shown interest but for now we have only gained the interest of our South West Governors. Osun has given us sign of tremendous support, Oyo is showing sign of support for us, so are Ogun and Ekiti. So, we are having support from Yoruba states’ governments because this is a Yoruba thing, we are building the Yoruba nation, we are reorganising our cultural essence and we are going back to the basis to respect, to recognise and make our culture important all over again. Don’t forget that culture is the greatest foreign exchange earner, a lot of countries of the world earn their foreign exchange; earn their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) basically from culture. So culture is a great investment and this is exactly what we are talking about.
How many countries have shown interest to feature at this maiden edition?
We have the interest of almost all the countries, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba and many more. As a matter of fact, there is a place in Southern Carolina called Oyotunji African Village, it’s an American settlement that was established in 1973 and it is built around the Yoruba culture and tradition. The way the typical Yoruba village is run, is the way they run their affairs there. It is the international headquarters of the World Sango Festival, so we are reaching out to the world that is exactly what I am trying to say. We are seriously reaching out to the world.
Some people believed that the untold hardship being experienced in the country is the aftermath of FESTAC 77 festival described as the celebration of idolatry. Don’t you think this belief might hamper the success of this festival?
No, I don’t believe it can hamper the success of the World Sango Festival because it is a cultural festival like Osun Osogbo, Argungun or any other yam festival in the east. I don’t know what FESTAC 77 has to do with the problem of Nigeria, I don’t know where such thinking is coming from but the truth is that the cause of Nigeria’s problem is bad leadership. If we can go back to the root and respect our culture, corruption would stop in this country. Let those who are in power, those planning to take elective offices take their oaths by Sango, that if they embezzle money let Sango deal with them and lets see the consequence, lets see if corruption would not stop in this country. If we are serious about stopping corruption, it is not a legislative affair it is a social problem that must be solved socio-culturally, let us apply the socio-cultural solution to the problem of corruption in this country. Yorubas have a way of stopping corruption in this country if they give us the opportunity, that’s the little I want to say about that.
What economic benefit would Nigeria derive from the festival?
I just told you that there are over 106 million people in forty countries of the world whose socio-cultural life, whose mode of living is tied to Yoruba tradition.
Let us give them their yearnings.
They are craving every day to come back to their ancestral root, they want to know, a lot of people in Florida, Miami, Venezuela, Argentina, Portugal, Cuba, Brazil, everywhere, they want to come to Oyo their ancestral home, we have not given them the opportunity.
Don’t forget these people are Yorubas the slave trade took to the Caribbean and the North and South America, 500,600 years ago, they took with them their religion and this religion and belief system have become very widely respected.
They know that they are from Nigeria, they are from Oyo and they are craving to come back.
A lot of them on facebook have told us how much they are craving to come back.
So imagine in three years if we have one million out of the 106 million people who would come to Oyo, their ancestral home for annual prayers, for annual festival and each of them spends $1,000 multiplied by one million is $1billion. So if $1billion enters the economy of Nigeria is that not an economic benefit.
There is no other cultural essence in any part of this country that can generate as much money as what the World Sango Festival can generate, we only need the government to see. And when we talk about branding, the best way to brand our image is through our culture, tourism. So you can imagine the economic benefit.
Considering the tourism potential of the festival, is Culture and Tourism Ministry participating?
We have reached out to the Minister of Culture and he has given us his support, we have reached out to the National Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), though we have not heard from them officially but they have shown tremendous interest. Don’t forget that the festival has a lot of activities that would be performed on daily basis.
For 10 days, every state of the South West would have their Council of Arts and Culture perform, every day.
There is going to be a setting arena of about 200m radius with lots of activities with standby generator. We have Ogun Ajobo day, we have reached out to the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and their other counterparts in all the states in the South West and they have given us their support, they are coming en masse, we are likely to host 200,000, 300,000 people, there would be Aje Oloja day for the market women.
What is the relevance of Sango to the culture Yoruba race?
Sango was the third Alaafin of Oyo, the Oyo Empire, the creation and the entrenchment of the Oyo Empire. He was the dominant factor for the creation of Oyo Empire. Alaafin Sango because of his supernatural power as a king in Yoruba land was actually the one that dominated the Oyo Empire that extended to Benin Republic, Bida in Niger State and Togo.
Alaafin Sango was the third Alaafin of Oyo, he was a powerful man, when he speaks fire comes out of his mouth and nostrils, he was able to conquer the Oyo empire and when he left, he left a symbol called Ose Sango. With the symbol, an Egba war was brought to an end with the mere sending of the symbol. Hardly is there any Yoruba community where Sango is not recognised, where Sango is not revered, where Sango is not followed. So Sango is predominantly very important to the culture of the Yoruba people, he was a strong warrior.
What benefit would this bring to the Yoruba race?
It is a unifying factor, unlike Olojo Festival of Ife, unlike the Ojude Oba in Ijebu, Lisabi in Abeokuta and others; this is a festival that affects all Yoruba lands.
We have reached out to every Yoruba settlements and all of them have seen it as a major festival, a unifying Yoruba festival that all Yoruba people young and old want to be part of, it is not sectional. More importantly, we are starting with the Yoruba eminent and excellent awards, a unifying event to recognize Yoruba people that have excelled in business, telecommunication, politics, sport, and jurisprudence and in almost every aspect of life that the Yorubas have excelled, we want to recognize them.
Every important sub-ethnic tribe of Yoruba have been chosen to be represented, Alaafin of Oyo is the chairman, we have the Ila ,Orangun of Ila, as a member of the board of Principals, we have the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, we have Osemawe of Ondo, Awujale of Ijebu-Ode and others who have been written to tell them that it is high time we do something in Yoruba land, to unify our people. These are the benefits we are bringing to the table and of course Otunba Biodun Ajiboye is the Secretary-General of the Yoruba eminent and excellent award, which is taking place on Friday, August 30, 2013 in Oyo town. You can see that it is a dynamic thing.
The festival is a 10-day thing, from August 22 to 31, 2013.
