How Olokun festival boosts Yoruba culture, traditions — Lawyer

The Chairman of the 2024 Olokun Festival and a legal practitioner, Mr. Peter Oguntimehin, has said that the quiz competition for secondary school students in Lagos State, as part of the activities for the Olokun festival, has contributed to the growth of Yoruba culture and traditions.

He said, apart from the fact that the competition has hugely contributed to the growth of the Yoruba language among the young ones, the Olokun festival has records of all-around success.

Oguntimehin disclosed this yesterday in Ikeja, Lagos, while speaking with newsmen on the activities lined up for the 2024 annual Olokun Festival organized by the Olokun Festival Foundation (OFF).

He said that former winners of the competition have gone ahead to record all-around success in their pursuits.

He noted various achievements, the innovation, and growth the Olokun Festival has experienced, noting that the “Fashion show and beauty pageants are parts of the annual programmes in the lineup of events for the Olokun Festival.”

“We have some of our former fashion enthusiasts and beauty queens who are masters of the game and are doing great things in their own fields of endeavors.”

Oguntimehin said the lectures delivered by renowned professors from different West African countries as guest lecturers, and several topics relating to the importance of Yoruba culture and Olokun traditions, have attracted culture enthusiasts who are eager to drink from the pot of knowledge of the university professors every year.

“We have used the Olokun festival as a platform to attract and solidify a robust relationship with Yoruba monarchs from across the border in the Benin Republic. Most of these monarchs, who have Yoruba ancestry, are today very happy to identify with us, and every year the number continues to grow.

“Beyond this, we have successfully taken the message beyond the Atlantic. Our people in Brazil, the USA, and other Caribbean countries have begun to celebrate the Olokun festival in their various countries. Before now, they celebrated the Yemoja festival. The reason for this was that they did not really know the difference between Olokun and Yemoja. But we are happy that today, through contact with us, they have made the correction by celebrating both Olokun and Yemoja as two separate deities. These are part of the positive impacts that our efforts have had in these faraway nations and globally.

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“We are particularly happy today that Olokun has given us an image that is globally recognized. The Olokun Festival Foundation has become synonymous with highly reputed traditional Yoruba festivals spread across Yorubaland. It is indeed a good thing to be so recognized by the global community.

“In what has become the tradition to kick off all our activities with prayers to the Almighty, we shall begin the 2024 edition of the Olokun Festival with prayers to the Almighty on Tuesday, October 15, 2024, at the Oodua House here. The prayers will be conducted in the three main religions, namely Traditional, Islam, and Christianity.

“For this year, the deity has mandated its devotees to gather for a vigil between 1 AM and 3 AM on the eve of the grand finale. There will also be special prayers for Yorubaland by Olokun at 10 AM.

“This year, the OFF has decided to get more of the indigenous communities in and around Badagry more involved as participants. In doing this, plans are in place to organize the logistics of bringing them to the grand finale. We envisage that the annual Olokun Festival organized by the Olokun Festival Foundation (OFF) shall become a major tourist attraction for international tourists in the nearest future. It will be a major boost to the sustainable development of tourism in Nigeria.”