With spiritual hands across the ocean, two cultures blessed their rivers and the goddess Osun, drawing Asheville a little closer to its sister city Osogbo, Nigeria, on Aug. 27, at Woodfin Riverside Park.
The event was sponsored by the Zamani Refuge African Culture Center, which was founded by Valeria Watson-Doost, otherwise known as Yeye Siju Osunyemi. It was Yeye Osunyemi who forged the Asheville-Osogbo sister city relationship.
The event featured Byron Ballard of the Asheville Mother Grove Temple, who set out Orisa altars. Yeye Osunyemi spoke about the river-goddess-blessing Osun festival in Nigeria, which takes place every August in the sacred groves of Osogbo and draws tens of thousands of believers and tourists.The festival honors and rekindles the mystical bonds between the river goddess and the people of Osogbo, who represent all of humanity, according to kadmusarts.com
The Asheville festival featured the Sahara Peace Choir and the Wild Bodema Drummers. Music was by Annelinde Metzner.
Three videos from osunpriestess capture the event as well as the Osun river grove and festivities in Osogbo, Nigeria.
The photos below are by Patty Levesque and Meg Kelly.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.