Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in a bid to unite worshippers of the world acclaimed Osun Osogbo Festival with the diaspora counterparts in the Caribbean, on Friday scooped the spiritual Osun River into a container with a view to transferring same to worshippers in Brazil.
Soyinka, who is a UNESCO Ambassador, visited the groove also to inspect the conditions of the tourist sites, relics and natural resources within the groove.
The Nobel Laureate disclosed that the Yoruba people in the Diaspora, who are worshippers of Osun, only use symbolic water in a bowl to depict the Osun River in Brazil during festival.
He said he promised the worshippers that during his next visit to the South American country, he would bring for them water from Osun River, so as to confer originality to the ‘spiritual essence of water’ during festival.
Soyinka said: “I am taking Osun Osogbo water samples to Brazil to the Osun worshippers.
“We have a lot of black people there and many of them are devotees of Osun, Sango, Obatala, Ogun, Yemoja and other deities.
”When I visited the worshippers in Brazil, I found out that they have preserved Yoruba culture, from the liturgies to some of the prayers and even the processions of the devotees.
“I saw the Iyalorisa of Osun.
“I saw bowl of water, which was symbolic of Osun River, and I promised them that I would bring them the actual water from Osun.
“I came to see how the work is going on here because there is a lot of restoration here and there is always a conflict of ideas when projects like this is being done.
“In making sure that one element in a preserved place like this does not clash with another element and to see how we can harmonize, we came to take a look, to see if there are any kind of advice we can give.
“Over 50 million Yoruba descent are said to be living in the Diaspora including West Africa, North, South and with the largest concentration in Central America and the Caribbean.”
Soyinka, who went round the Osun groove in company with the Senator representation Osun Central Senatorial district, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, also observed that some of the relics, art and cultural artifacts need constant maintenance and restoration so that they may retain their tourist attractions.
He equally inspected the new spectators’ arena, which is under construction, to make sure the structure blends with the natural atmosphere of flora and fauna of the groove.
The Commissioner for Home Affairs, Tourism and Culture, Mr. Sikiru Ayedun, told reporters that the government of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola is leaving no stone unturned in making sure that the state becomes the major tourist destination of the country.
Ayedun said the purpose of the UNESCO Ambassador’s visit hinges also on how to harmonize the interest of government and the community as well as the ways and means of preservation of the infrastructure within the groove.
He said that with the personality of Soyinka, who attested to what is on ground in the groove, the government is certainly taking the tourist sites of the state to the international level.
He said: “The essence of this tour is to harmonize the interest of the government, the community and the preservation of the site as regards the infrastructural development that the government is putting in place.
“We have seen that Professor Soyinka attested to what has been on ground as having conformed to the natural environment.
“We are indeed taking the development of the site and some other tourist sites in the state beyond Nigeria.
“It is already being internationalised and that is the path we intend to follow.”