Unilorin celebrates maiden Cultural Day festival

The Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies and Creative Arts at the University of Ilorin, Professor Olutoyin Raymond Ogunade, has proposed the declaration of every Monday as Cultural Attire Day on the university campus.

Speaking during the grand finale of the university’s Cultural Day celebration, themed “Celebrating the Beauty of Our Cultural Diversity”, Ogunade said the initiative would encourage both staff and students to dress in their indigenous attire.

“It is not as a costume, but as a deliberate act of cultural consciousness,” he stated.

According to him, “Cultural attire is not just fashion; it is ancestral memory etched into form. To dress culturally is to declare identity, to remember and resist cultural domination.” He noted that such practices have proven effective in other academic settings.

To address concerns over affordability, Ogunade recommended the launch of a ‘Cultural Wear Initiative’ under the Centre.

The project, he said, would involve partnerships with local designers, alumni, and sponsors to make traditional attire easily accessible and affordable across the university.

“We must get ourselves out of the residual Western dictates that still tell us how to dress,” he declared, adding that cultural dress should not be worn merely for display but as an everyday expression of identity.

The event, held at the university campus, featured displays of cultural heritage through traditional music, songs, dance, ewi, ijala, and traditional attire by staff, students, and members of the university community.

The highlight of the celebration was a musical rendition by a representative of the guest of honour, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, delivered by renowned cultural scholar and artist, Professor Wole Alade, a former Director of the MUSON Centre, Lagos.

Alade thrilled the audience with a captivating cultural performance that crowned the day’s festivities.

In his address, Ogunade praised the university’s leadership for its commitment to cultural advancement through the establishment of the Centre and the institutionalisation of the annual Cultural Day.

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Quoting Wole Soyinka, he said: “A tiger does not proclaim its tigritude. It pounces.”

He also drew on the works of African intellectuals such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí to argue for the necessity of reclaiming and preserving indigenous epistemologies within academic spaces.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Wahab Egbewole SAN, represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Management Services, Professor Adegboyega Fawole, said the Cultural Day celebration reaffirmed the university’s dedication to promoting cultural literacy, inclusion, and pride.

The Vice Chancellor, who said that our diverse cultures reflect who we are—our heritage and beliefs—added that they bind us together as one people.

“We have different kinds of cuisine, music, dance, dresses, literature, festivals, etc. We’re warm and hospitable people. All these bind us together as a people. So, we must encourage this,” he said.

Among dignitaries at the event were Emeritus Professor Olu Obafemi, members of the university governing council, deans of various faculties, traditional institutions, students, and members of the university community.

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