Chief Ifa Ojewon Yomi Abiodu and Chief Oluwo Oluwole Ifankule Adetutu Alagbade
TriniView.com Reporters
Event Date: June 08, 2007
Posted: June 14, 2007
The 8th Annual Sango/Orisha Rain Festival took place over a three-day course starting on Friday 6th June, 2007. The Santa Cruz shrine was tranquil, beautifully laid out and furnished with ornaments and paintings that depicted Yoruba gods and goddesses. The gathering was a small one, but the ceremony was appreciated by all who had come to welcome in the change of the new season.
The programme began with an opening invocation by Bro. Ifa Korede who intimated that in the Orisha cosmogony, their scriptures come out of the Ife Oracle. According to him, the 17th Odu within this book states that the use of intelligence rather than force or confrontation when dealing with enemies is the proper order for people to exist by. He also encouraged the audience of Orisha worshippers to follow the babalawo's (male or female priest) advice, since he/she would have gone through rites of passage, training and would have preserved and inculcated the standards of his/her religious predecessors. Also, the babalawo would communicate through the Ife and would act as an intermediary between the spirit world and the mortal realm and, as a result, the advice that he/she would give would have divine foundation.
The national anthem was played by the young quartet, the Harmonites Juniors from Coconut Drive, Morvant, who did a good job on the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, the Steelpan.
Following the rendition of the national anthem, the Voices of Oshun choir, who hail from St. Helena Village, Piarco, did a religious chant which was backed by the powerful beat of African drums.
Sister Olu Biire then gave the welcoming address. She intimated that it was her belief that thanks should be given for the blessings bestowed to them by the Orishas and that the works of those among us who have excelled should be rewarded, hence the importance of the appreciation ceremony for some of those who are deserving within the African community. She went on to say that nature festivals are designed to propitiate our natural environment and understand how they affect us both in a material and a psychic sense. She then invited the audience to think of the rain and the positive aspects of it; not only the bounty it brings, but also its absence and presence and the implications of both. Sister Biire lastly beseeched that people be responsible for their actions and prevent flooding and other calamitous happenings caused by careless human actions such as littering and other forms of pollution.
Independent Senator Bro. Noble Khan, representing the Inter-Religious Organization, proclaimed that there are striking similarities that he has discovered between his Islamic tradition and Orisha in terms of the importance of rain. He claimed that rain, in both religions, holds great significance for obvious reasons, including the fact that it sustains life. He went on to say that the 'fitra' or the natural way that binds us as a people is natural between Muslims and Orisha worshippers and that the commonalties shared between them is a 'fitra' that binds them. He lastly congratulated them, at this and other shrines, for keeping the African tradition alive today.
Chief Orawale Oranfe, who spoke next, paid tribute to the Orishas and the ancestors. He stressed that we need to develop noble character and uprightness and that this is important in human development. He also stated that the Rain Festival is not only about the water principle but all the elements that work together in synchrony.
Feature speaker Bro. Khafra Kambon indicated to the audience that rain festivals are present in many traditions and that this tradition is nothing new.
Kambon went on to give his speech on "Bringing What Was To What Is, For What Shall Be" which was an address founded on this year's commemoration of the bicentennial of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He said that two-hundred years ago, the Atlantic Slave Trade did not end: it was abolished in the British territories but not in the entire Western hemisphere or any other territory in the world.
In terms of the abolition of the enslaved Africans, in 2007, he said, there are disputed claims of ownership of this milestone in history: British humanitarianism; economic forces as posited by Dr. Eric Williams; and African resistance such as in Haiti. He reverberated a historical timeline starting from the pre-slavery epoch and showed how the African resistance was important in forcing the decision to end slavery.
Audience members, for the second time around, got a chance to listen to the Steelpan by the Harmonites Juniors who played Andre Tanker's "Salamander", Shaggy's "Church Heathen" and another piece during the cultural interlude segment.
Following this was the much-anticipated presentation of awards. The format was such that there was a citation on the awardee, the presentation to the awardee and then a short speech by the awardee. Those who presented citations and the awardees are as follows: Professor Jennifer Rahim, department of Liberal Arts, UWI, who provided citation on awardee, professor Maureen Warner-Lewis; Rawle Gibbons, playwright, cultural researcher and author who provided citation on awardee, Jah Jah Oga Onilu; Chief Ifa Ojewon Yomi Abiodu, master artist, poet and author, who provided citation on awardee, Eintou Pearl Springer; Iyalorisa L'Antoinette Osunide Stein, Doyenne of Dance, Jamaica, choreographer and priestess who provided citation on awardee, Chief Oluwo Oluwole Ifankule Adetutu Alagbade; and Ifa Faloju, Yoruba priest and accountant who provided citation on Chief Solagbade.
After the awardees or persons on their behalf had received the awards, Chief Ifa Ojewon Yomi Abiodu, accompanied by Chief Oluwo Oluwole Ifankule Adetutu, declared the 8th Annual Sango/Oshun Rain Festival open on behalf of the Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, Senator the Honourable Joan Yuille-Williams.
Members of the audience were then invited to assemble in the eating area where soft beverages and light snacks were served. Many left anticipating the two upcoming days of celebration.
8th Annual Sango/Osun Rain Festival Opening in pictures:
www.triniview.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=184204
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