Understanding Oro cultural festival in Yorubaland

ORO festival is an important festival in Yoruba land and it is always used to appease the gods and ask for peace and security in the land.

Oro is an age-long tradition that seems to have defied civilisation and attempts to have what many refer to as it “anti-human activities” curtailed.

Oro festival is an annual traditional festival that is of patriarch nature, as it is only celebrated by male descendents, who are paternal natives to the specific location where the particular event is taking place. Oro is always done when a king dies.

What time does Oro festival start? For an Oro festival to commence, a monarch will declare three days Oro rite between the hours of 12:00a.m. and 5:00a.m., usually from Wednesday to Saturday.

The monarch will issue a memo to residents of the community informing them of restriction of movements to perform the Oro festival.

The most important thing about Oro is that it is forbidden for women and non-initiated (Ogberi) to participate.

Moreover, if one is in a community where one is not an indigene and Oro festival is being done, it is forbidden to go out during the festival, even if one is a male.

Again, let say one is a male from a particular town visits another town, but unknown to him, Oro festival is being performed, if one is already an initiate from where he is coming from, nobody will harm or attack him; all he has to do will be to answer some questions which is called ‘Aro,’ which only the initiates understand.

How does Oro look? It is said that Oro is clothed in a robe with shells and wears a white wooden mask with blood snared on the lips. Oro is steeped in mysteries. It mostly has male descendants that are paternal natives participating in secretive rites.

Widely known is the fact that a curfew is declared when Oro is meant to parade a community and females are confined indoors. It is taboo for females to set eyes on the deity. The restriction also extends to males who are non initiates and non-natives.

Based on oral history, death, as a fatal consequence, awaits any woman who sees the instruments that produce the voice of the Oro or observes the priest performing the rituals.

Though the life of a man could be spared if caught outside, he must hide as the deity and its worshippers pass through.

According to a non-profit making organization, Ondo Connect New Era, in an article entitled ‘Understanding the Antiquated Yoruba Oro Festival,’ the word Oro means fierceness, tempest or provocation, and the deity appears to have personified executive power! Oro is supposed to haunt the forest in the neighbourhood of towns and he makes his approach known by a strange whirring, roaring noise. As soon as this is heard, all women must shut themselves up in their houses and refrain from looking outside.”

 

• Aderibigbe is Assistant Chief Museum Education Officer (ACMEO), National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Oyo.

 

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