Oluwa/ Prof. Oyin Ogunba's Data on Olua Festival Chants

[Toyin Falola]

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>Dear Saliba,
>
>While I would have loved to know what informed your choice of "Oluwa"
>pronounced "Olua" (r-d-m)festival,I would like to give this brief
>information: Olua festival is, more than anywhere else, visible in
>Osi-Ekiti, a town about sixty or less kilometers to Ado-Ekiti, the State
>capital.
>
>Olua is a prominent god in the community
>In the festival chant dedicated to him as an act of worship, he is
>described severally as the Lord of the Earth; the women worshippers
>reverence him on their knees and acknowledge him as a great husband;he is
>referred to as a great son of Oduduwa;sweet palm-wine and "oguro-wine"
>flow freely during the festival. Again, Olua is referred to as "Eye Iwe"
>by his worshippers, an excerpt from the chants:
> Eye Iwe owns us all
> Eye Iwe bought us all
> He attracts us his calabash of camwood
> We beg God to reduce our mountains to a plain land
> You ask us to serve and worship you
> May we not regret at the end ...
>
>
>
>Prof. Oyin Ogunba who unfortunately passed on recently recorded a set of
>Yoruba festival chants, including Olua festival chants in the 1970s. They
>are bound in volmes.Volume 14 is titled Ekiti Festival Chants. The volume
>has 8 festival chants- ILASE Chants by Afolabi Akinyede of Ado-Ekiti;
>ORIKI ALE ULE by Madam Omoboyode Arowa of Oke Ila, Ado-Ekiti; BALUFON
>Chants at Olofin Festival, Ilawe-Ekiti; OGUN Chants, Ire-Ekiti; OLUA
>festival Chants in Osi-Ekiti; OKOROBO Chants, Ifaki-Ekiti; OLOOSUNTA
>Chants, Ikere-Ekiti; OKOROBO Chants, Ifaki-Ekiti; SEMUREGEDE Chants,
>Ode-Ekiti. I assisted him with the transciption and translation of the
>volume into English in the early '80s because I am Ekiti and a
>postgraduate student under his supervision. He passed the materials on to
>me some years ago when I indicated my intention to update the recordings
>jointly with Prof. Ogundeji, with a view to evolving a home-grown poetics
>of oral poetry recitation and performance. The research is to last ten
>years. We have about two more years to complete it when the great scholar
>passed on a couple of weeks ago.
>
>Ademola O. Dasylva,
>Co-Coordinator,
>Ibadan Cultural Studies Group,
>University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
>
>
>>
>> Dear Sir,
>>
>> Thank you for accepting me into the group. I am a University student
>> and am conducting some research into the Yoruba tribe. I have come
>> across a festival called the Oluwa festival which occurs twice every
>> year in the Ekiti state.
>> I was wondering if you would be able to provide me with some
>> information about this well-known festival, such as: the reason behind
>> it, who is allowed to take part in it and is there is a God
>> worshipped?
>>
>> Your assistance would be highly appreciated.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Matthew Saliba
>>
>> >>

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa