2021 OSUN OSOGBO FESTIVAL BEGIN WITH TRADITIONAL CLEANSING with IWỌPOPO RITUAL

The Osun Osogbo festival kicked off on Monday amidst pomp and pageantry with the traditional cleansing of the city of Osogbo called ‘Iwopopo” to mark the official commencement of the 2021 edition of the annual sacrifice to celebrate the Osun river goddess.

The Ataoja of Osogbo, Kaabiyesi, His Royal Majesty, Kaabiyesi Oba Jimoh, Oyetunji (Olaonipekun Larooye II) led the Osogbo, Cultural Heritage Council, traditional chiefs, worshippers, devotees, government officials and residents of Osogbo in a symbolic cleansing of the city in a march through designated routes after which different age and social groups, communities and titled chiefs paid homage to the king seated in the centre of town.

HISTORY OF IWỌPOPO RITUAL

The Iwopopo Ritual: This is a ritual done to cleanse the city from negative vibes. It is done first before the festival starts properly.

The first public event of the Osun festival is the Iwo Popo i.e. traditional clearing of the major Osogbo main road which on Monday, twelve days prior to the grand finale of the festival. On this day, the Ataoja,

accompanied by his wives, chiefs, Osun priestess and other devotees, proceed from his palace to Gbaemu at the centre of the town. At the designated point in Gbaemu, the

Ataoja would sit down with his full paraphernalia of office and accept communal gifts from his subjects. Several categories of people such as traditional chiefs, local rulers, family heads, members of traditional societies, men, women and children come to pay homage to the Ataoja while he showers royal blessing on them.

The history embedded in this symbolic pathclearing (Iwo Popo) is reminiscing one of the major events associated with the founding of Osogbo.

This was when the ancestors of Osogbo were faced with perennial water scarcity in Ipole and they commissioned Olutimehin, a skillful hunter, to look for possible source of water for the people to settle. When Olutimehin, Ogidan and other prominent hunters discovered the bank of Osun River, they were the people who cleared the path leading to the place for their people to settle before their encounter with the goddess of the river.

Thus, the traditional path clearing kick-starting the annual Osun festival is likened to the path clearing carried out by Olutimehin and other hunters at the inception of the settlement of Ipole migrants in Osogbo. It must be emphasised that path-clearing applies to most traditional activities associated with the annual celebration of Osun festival and it is traced to the historic path clearing by Olutimehin, the great hunter-ancestor of Osogbo.