Osun Osogbo Festival: South-West Youth Charged To Promote, Showcase Yoruba Culture

By: Ismaeel Uthman

Youths in the South-Western part of Nigeria have been charged to promote their culture and showcase the Yoruba’s value and tradition to the world. 

The charge was given in the wake of the just concluded Osun Osogbo festival which welcomed the presence of hundreds of tourists from Europe, America, Brazil and the Osun devotees, last Friday.

Thousands of the local and international devotees, after leaving the Osun grove, gathered at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park Osogbo, to celebrate the festival with fun fair.

They danced to different cultural performance and music in an event sponsored by Guinness Nigeria, Origin, among other cooperate organisations who are major supporters of the festival.

One of the devotees who came from Ekiti state to celebrate the festival, Oluwatoyin Daniel, said she is proud to hail from Yorubaland, describing it as the best tribe in Africa with rich culture.

Daniel said she is always happy to see foreigner coming to the country to celebrate the Yoruba culture.

She said: “I am always happy whenever I see white people joining us to celebrate our culture here in Yorubaland. This is a sign that they value and appreciate our tradition. As a young lady, I appreciate Yoruba culture and tradition, that is why I do partake in it.”

In their separate comments, Flavor Oyinsore and Seun Ogunlana charged all stakeholders who are the custodian of Yourba culture and tradition to always organise event that can encourage youths to sustain the culture for the next generation.

According to them, “It is very important we sustained our culture so that it will not go into extinction.

“If we don’t promote our culture, nobody will do it for us. It is very important we promote our culture and our appreciation goes to everyone who makes sure this continue.”

They noted that Yoruba race maintains the richest culture that can accommodate the heritage and civilization.

Speaking with newsmen at the event, one of the Assistant Brand Managers, Mainstream Orijin, Guinness Nigeria, Roland Akpe, said that the companies that sponsored the programme are committed to supporting Nigerian communities with their culture.

Akpe disclosed that Guinness as a company has empowered some local artists with sum of N4,000,000 grant.