Shrine Guardian Project
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
We are building a network of shrine keepers in Nigeria who steward sacred groves, rivers, and ancestral waters—not as environmental resources to be conserved, but as cosmological kin with agency, memory, and demands. These groves are not symbolic—they are homes to deities, ancestors, and earth intelligences whose voices must be recognized in any planetary future.
Our model resists modern conservation logics that frame nature as passive or commodifiable. Instead, we draw from Yoruba cosmology and decolonial relationality to develop a governance model in which orisa and shrine keepers co-steward land and water through ritual, story, and collective accountability.
Conventional approaches assume nature must be managed, owned, or saved by humans. We reject this premise. Instead, we align with traditions in which the forest is a relative, the river has a mouth, and the grove can withhold its blessings if mistreated. Change happens when:
Shrine keepers are resourced as relational diplomats, not bypassed for “rational” stakeholders.
Groves are protected through ceremonial diplomacy, not just legal defense.
Communities re-enter covenantal relationships with land and spirit—not to extract, but to reciprocate.
Oluwatoyin Adepoju Co-director Shrine Guardian Project, Nigeria
K. Noël Amherd, MA PhD Babaláwo, Co-director Shrine Guardian Project
Most conservation models aim to preserve biodiversity through modernist, technocratic means. Our project:
Centers indigenous epistemologies not as content, but as method.
Treats orisa and groves as co-authors of the work, not silent beneficiaries.
Moves from sustainability to relational fidelity.
Invokes a post-legal ethics of guardianship: shrines and forests are not “ours”—they are watching us.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Cornelius Hamelberg
Oluwatoyin the inspirator
not a conspirator
a reasonable intention indeed
Maybe the enquiry should have been more respectfully addressed to the Co-
Director-Generals of the Project ?
As in this case ( shmile) :
https://kenyapage.net/commentary/songs/lettre-a-mr-le-directeur-general-lyrics-and-translation/
I can imagine similar noble Shrine Guardian, Preservation and Maintenance of Sacred Groves, Rivers, and Ancestral Waters Projects taking off in some of the holy places in the Middle East, such as the Jordan River, for example ( and here’s my favourite photo of President Goodluck Jonathan on pilgrimage to Israel sometime before the 2015 Nigerian Presidential Elections - the photo reportedly taken somewhere on or near the banks of that stretch of holy water where Jesus is said to have been baptised by John the Baptiser ) :
You do perhaps recall Philosophy Professor Segun Ogungbemi’s reaction in this forum which ostensibly supports your position about the holiness of some Nigerian rivers :
https://groups.google.com/g/usaafricadialogue/c/0oY3ZkXn5jw/m/2mSxS1IQAwAJ
“This is interesting. Don't they have rivers in Bayelsa State where the President can go with other Nigerians to pray? Or don't we have better rivers in Nigeria where the President and fellow Nigerians can go and pray? What is so special about river Jordan in Israel that attracted the President to abandon his high office at this material time to waste Public taxpayers' money in Israel? How many times have we seen the Prime Minister or President of Israel come to Nigeria for such a frivolous jamboree?
I cannot imagine our President will go to a dirty river in Israel when we have better rivers in Nigeria.
During the time of Jesus it was recorded in the Bible that people with shin disease and the physically challenged went there to bathe. And that Jesus performed miracles there. Did our President go to river Jordan to see a miracle water because such is not in his country?
Na wa o!
Yemoja will forgive you all. Aase.
SO “
Holy places have or are supposed to have their guardians and custodians ; You are of course aware that the King of Saudi Arabia is the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia // The King of Saudi Arabia is the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia
So also, today there must be some officially recognised authorities in Nigeria who are in charge of guarding and protecting e.g. the much celebrated Yoruba shrines, Forests, Holy Groves etc. located on sovereign Nigerian territory ?
By the way , Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised to protect and preserve the Quran
All of the above cordially invites your consideration of the answer/s to these questions about what was the official residence of Hashem, on planet earth:
Why was the Second Temple destroyed ?
Surely, Hashem is / was capable of defending His own temple?
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Dr. Oohay
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Dr Oohay,
May the Good Lord preserve us, especially preserve people like you, "striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind".
May the Good Lord also preserve all wannabe saviours and protectors of Nigeria’s sacred groves
We are yet to hear more directly from the horse’s mouth about the overarching pantheistic view of theirs, as hopefully that should disentangle any of the mangled or discombobulated that could have been coming from AI as agency, when used ( misused, abused) by the unsuspecting.
Nowadays, no matter what you search for, on some of the search engines, there’s always an AI preview / “AI Overview” that pops up, whether you like it or not. Here’s an example : Ecosystem
Surely, today, there must be some officially recognised authorities in Nigeria who are in charge of guarding and protecting Nigeria’s shrines, Forests, Holy Groves, & Nigeria’s World Heritage Sites etc. located on sovereign Nigerian territory ?
Primarily, of course, the main opposition is going to come from the Bible-thumpers who believe that the God of Israel (the very jealous God who commanded “Thou Shalt have no other Gods before ME”) was also addressing the brethren in Osogbo and not only His chosen people when He commanded them to destroy the sacred groves (of the idolaters)
And how do you like this : The New World Order was never outside, it was always within you
On the lighter side : https://www.youtube.com/@CHRONICLESOFBLACKS
Dr. Oohay
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dr Oohay,
Unfortunately, at this stage I still know nothing about AI.
Despite acknowledging the fact that “The Typewriter is Holy”, I was one of the last of my generation to abandon fountain pen and ink on paper for the Olivetti keyboard, and subsequently, one of the absolutely very last to start using a computer. Back then, my dinosaur argument was that 20th century technology was not to be found in my genetic code /DNA and that come what may, by any means necessary, I would resist any urge for a transition from the purely human to any form of the humanoid. It would seem that we are gradually succumbing to generational pressures to update to the latest, so that six weeks ago, albeit only reluctantly catching up with modernity, I ( “modern man”) found myself to be a proud possessor of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, to my chagrin, only to discover that the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max is now slightly outdated and has been superseded by the superior technology and the added features of Apple iphone 17 pro max since about two weeks ago, all in tune with “and the first one now will later be last”
At least I'm not as bad ( or as good) as some of the folks I know, who boast that they don’t even have a TV set or watch TV.
BTW, to be honest, I wouldn’t mind having a direct line to Trump in the Oval Office, or wherever he could be, from moment to moment…
Q: Would Kant's concept of human understanding have been considerably enhanced if in the form of precognition he had had at his disposal the 21st century resources known as A1 ( Artificial Intelligence ? Ditto sort of questions for Mozart & Beethoven, and e.g. Chidi, about what the French call “sensibilité”...
DeGrasse Tyson on human intelligence vs AI
Take away the word artificial as an adjective with which to qualify intelligence and what do we have left but ordinary / natural intelligence, some would say “human intelligence”, Ojogbon, I suppose in contrast with animal / extra-terrestrial even “ Divine” intelligence, omniscience, not to mention e,g. The Central Intelligence Agency
You and your anti-ism/s - keeping in mind that relationship between human, humanitarian, and humanism …
How would or does AI ( various AI) grapple with the proposition that “God is a human invention”?
I fear that in the coming years AI will greatly contribute to determining how people vote; AI will do most of our thinking for us, the interested parties will feed x amount of partisan information about dear Tinubu, the improbable Atiku, and the incongruous “youth man” Obi, into the AI machine and the AI machine will spit out its own cherished assessments about the lesser of the two evils ( Obi & Alhaji Atiku) while Dr. Oohay will be protesting vehemently, "That's not chess!”, others no less vehemently “That ain’t cricket!” in the forthcoming wars between man and the machine….
Culture news:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKbcCyvo5mk&list=WL&index=41&t=59s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afxhz1I8TDw&list=WL&index=51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXXWEgnaZ8U&list=WL&index=6