The annual Oro Obalufon festival, which culminates in the Ilawa Obalufon traditional royal carnival, is a significant cultural event in Ora Igbomina, Osun State of Nigeria.
The twenty-one day celebration honours Obalufon and progenitors of the founder of Ora Igbomina, Oba Oyerinde Apagunjemose, a grandson of Obalufon Ogbogbodinrin, the longest reigning Ooni of Ife, and Oba Oyerinde himself for his exceptional courage and royalty.
The Ilawa Obalufon is a socio-cultural celebration always have the priests of Obalufon from Odooda quarters Ora Igbomina and the Akesin as the royal symbol serving as the gateway of interactions between the town’s deities and the people.
A festival of many parts, it features the hunters in the town engaging in symbolic annual hunting expedition in reenactment of the hunting adventure of Oba Oyerinde Apagunjemose from Ora Orija, the first settlement of the community, to the present location where he killed an elephant.
The killing of the elephant served as a good omen to him leading to the relocation from Ora Orija to the present site.
It also involves the visit to Omi Igbo (forest river) where Oyerinde turned to a python instead of dying, an act that was responsible for the totem of Ora Igbomina connecting it to python and snakes generally.
During the twenty one day, the Oba will go into seven day seclusion for fasting and prayers in order to commune with Olodumare, the supreme being, deities and ancestors.
The grand finale of the festival takes place in the last two days of the festival which is often the last Friday and Saturday of March every year.
It is always a colourful ceremony where the Akesin of Ora Igbomina will sit in his royal splendour at the ancient Aganju, the royal pavilion in front of the palace to receive guests amidst the sounds of gongs and metals patterned after the Osirigi in Ile-Ife, drums made from wooden pot covered with animal skins and all other types of drums by families traditionally saddled with that responsibility.
People from various compounds in the town, different social and cultural organisations, age groups, chiefs in their various layers will use the occasion of the grand finale known as Ilawa Obalufon to pay obeisance to the Akesin of Ora Igbomina who will always be surrounded by his brother Obas from Alapameri and Obalufon clans of Yoruba kings.
It is a beauty to behold for tourists far and near who want to experience undiluted Yoruba culture in festivals, dressing, cuisines, drumming and dancing, panegyric and lots more.
Special (Iwure) traditional prayers for solutions to various individuals and communal challenges, and for peace and development in the state and country are always at the annual festival with proofs that the prayers are answered as people come annually to testify to that.
This year’s grand finale holds on Friday 28, and Saturday 29, of this month.
