hybrid heritage Yoruba Heritage as Project Reauthenticating the Osun Grove in , Nigeria

Peter Probst n July 2008 I attended the birthday party of the Aus- trian artist Susanne Wenger in Osogbo, Nigeria. It all photos by the author except where was Wenger’s ninety-third birthday and, as it turned otherwise indicated out, her last. In January 2009 she passed away (Probst 2009). It was a private family event. Practically all the guests were either adopted children or members of Wenger’s New Sacred Art Group. Before the cutting of the birth- Iday cake each one of the guests stood up and gave a short speech praising the jubilee and her achievements. The style and topics of the speeches varied. While some eulogized the importance of Wenger’s deeds for their own personal life, others acclaimed her active participation in Osogbo’s ritual life and her relentless efforts to preserve the grove of Osogbo’s guardian deity Osun through the erection of new images. Still others took a more statesmanlike stance and stressed Wenger’s contribution to the reputation of Osogbo as Nigeria’s center of art and heritage. As I listened to these speeches I found myself recalling the time I first visited Osogbo, in 2000. I had come to Nigeria to look into the question of what ever happened to the “Osogbo art school.” In the 1960s the label stood for an exciting though also contested center of modern—then still contemporary—African art. In the 1970s and 1980s Osogbo’s fame faded. The name grad- ually disappeared in the art historical references. By the end of the 1990s the literature suggested the name Osogbo had shrunk to a historical footnote. Encountering the reality thus came as a surprise. During my first visit in 2000 I quickly realized that the city and its artists had embarked on a “second career.” After a first career in the global art world, the city had successfully reinvented itself as an important destination in today’s roots and heritage tourism, with the Osun grove and annual Osun festival being the city’s main attractions (Fig. 1). The Nigerian state was obviously supporting this development. Not only was the Osogbo museum—a branch of the National Commission of Museums and Monuments—involved in the organization of the Osun festival which climaxes in the Osun grove, but rumor also had it that the Nigerian state intended to nominate the Osun grove to be added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites. I asked around to get more information on the nomination plan but failed. The more I talked to people, the

(opposite) more I realized that I was obviously the only one who found the 1 Osogbo Youth, Osun Festival 2002. The fish is story stunning. What I conceived as a particularly striking case both a depiction of Osun’s messenger as well as an of postcolonial hybridity, (most) people in Osogbo found per- emblem of royal authority and power.

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ar_24-37.indd 24 8/6/2009 7:08:26 PM fectly normal—by now. The long-standing reservations against bine UNESCO’s seemingly conservative nomination criteria Wenger and her work in the Osun grove, once articulated both (“authenticity,” “integrity,” or “masterwork of human creative inside and outside Nigeria, seemed to have been forgotten: her genius,” etc.) with the celebration of newness and hybridity the intrusion into the Yoruba iconoscape, the effects her structures reshaped Osun grove seemed to represent? And yet, when in had on the atmosphere of the grove, and the way it had led to July 2005 members of the World Heritage Committee decided a touristification of Yoruba art and culture, resulting in a kind to approve the Nigerian nomination and consequently declared of “Yoruba light” which had nothing to do with “real” Yoruba the Osun Osogbo grove a UNESCO World Heritage site, that is anymore. In the 1970s and ‘80s the reservation tied in with the exactly what happened (Fig. 2). debate on the foreignness of the grove’s images on the one hand Depending on one’s perspective, one can see the decision either and the debate on the foreignness of Wenger as the artist who as a domestication or a celebration of hybridity. Whatever one created and prompted these works on the other. Both debates opts for, the approach and analytical concepts to substantiate went together, doubling the feature of difference and thus creat- one’s argument will differ. After all, it is one thing to historicize ing a double hybridity, as it were. And as if this is not enough, the hybridity of objects (domestication); it is another to study the there was—and still is—also the hybridity of the site as such, hybridity of subjects producing such objects (celebration). What simultaneously an active Yoruba ritual site and a Western sculp- is necessary to understand what has happened in Osogbo is a ture garden where Nigerian school children and American and combination of both perspectives. In other words, an approach is European tourists alike get guided tours, during which they needed which allows one to study the appropriation and authen- learn about traditional Yoruba ritual and religion. Given these tication of both subjects and objects. The organization of the pres- circumstances I found it difficult to envision that the plan of the ent essay into four parts results from this task. In the first part I Nigerian government to add the Osun grove to the UNESCO will give a brief outline of the history and social importance of the list of world heritage list would come to fruition. How to com- Osun grove as an expression of locality and collective identity. The

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ar_24-37.indd 25 8/6/2009 7:08:31 PM second part deals with the advent of Wenger and her modern- the grove is the “Citadel of Osogbo History” (Fig. 3). As such it ist agenda which drove the reshaping of the grove. The third part is full of “historical monuments, sculptures, and structures,” all looks at how the new was turned into heritage while the fourth created by members of the New Sacred Art Group founded by and last part investigates the effects of this development. As I will Wenger in the early 1960s. Scattered throughout the forest, the show, each part represents a certain stage in the evolution of dif- works vary in size, form, and material. A coherent style does not ferent “regimes of value” (Myers 2001). To elicit the changing role exist. Buraimoh Gbadamosi’s stocky and compact stone sculp- of the Osun grove in the unfolding of these regimes I argue that tures differ strongly from Kasali Akangbe’s dynamic, elongated it is useful to study Osogbo heritage politics along the lines of the wooden carvings and Adeyemi Oseni’s stylized cement figures “cultural script” (Kasfir 2007) and the dialectics of “flow and clo- (Figs. 4–5). While the latter show a restrained grace, Wenger’s sure” (Meyer and Geschiere 1999, Geschiere 2009) which struc- cement architectures and plastics are excessive in their feverish ture sociohistorical processes of accelerated change. Since heritage celebration of expression. Yet different as the works in the Osun is a result of these acceleration processes and as such subject to grove are, as gestures of respect to they are all their peculiar dialectics (Probst 2008) we need to understand both visible reminders of what constitutes Osogbo’s historical identity. the concept and its expressions not as something fixed but as an To the Nigerian public the Yoruba deity Osun and the Yoruba open, ongoing project which can encompass and appreciate also a city Osogbo go together. People in Osogbo venerate Osun as “hybrid heritage” such as the Osun grove. Having said that, let us their guardian deity and conduct an annual festival to honor and look how this particular project evolved. revive the relationship with her. In the numerous praise songs Osun is depicted as a big, massive woman wearing brass ban- A CITADEL OF HISTORY gles, a brass fan, and a beaded comb. Her origin lies in Ekitiland The sacred Osun grove today is a 75 hectare (185 acre) patch of west of Osogbo, the area where the originates. The primary forest alongside the Osun river in Osogbo, a Yoruba city- river is in fact Osun’s epiphany, her liquid body as it were. Con- kingdom and capital of in Southwest Nigeria. As the sequently Osun is first and foremost a water or fertility deity, but signboard erected at the entrance to the main river shrine states, the notions associated with Osun are much wider, embracing

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ar_24-37.indd 26 8/6/2009 7:08:36 PM imageries of healing, femininity, motherhood, sexuality, wealth, of Ilesa. With the collapse of Oyo and the subsequent struggle wisdom, knowledge, beauty, art, and power. In fact, as Rowland to fill the resulting power vacuum, this began to change. Osogbo Abiodun (2001) has pointed out, Osun has different identities, became the frontline of two new regional powers: the Fulani depending on the various conditions under which people have coming from the north, advancing southwards, and the Ibadan lent meaning to her, a strategy which fits well Osun’s changing marching northwards, determined to stem Fulani aggression. role in history. Eventually, the Ibadan and Fulani armies clashed in around As the only female of the original seventeen Yoruba divini- 1830 in the legendary Battle of Osogbo, during which the Ibadan ties who descended on earth, Osun plays a special role in Yor- troops defeated the Fulani army. In Osogbo itself, the defeat is uba religion and politics. As the chapters òsétúá in the divination credited not to the military strength of the Ibadan army but to corpus Ifa narrate, Osun was initially left out by the other male the power of Osun. According to one version, Osun gave warn- deities but later gained power and influence. Based on oral tra- ing of an imminent Fulani attack by making a carving fall in ditions and his own archaeological findings, Yoruba historian the Osun shrine at the palace. Other versions tell how the deity and archaeologist Akinwumi Ogundiran (2003:62ff.) has argued turned into a food vendor who sold the Fulani poisoned bean- that Osun’s belated recognition and subsequent ascent in the cakes, which killed many in the Fulani army and successfully pantheon of Yoruba Orisa might reflect historical transforma- ended its advance. tions in the Yoruba/Edo corridor. According to Ogundiran Be that as it may, Osun’s protection had important conse- the upper Osun region was once a frontier zone in which the quences for Osogbo. Within the next decades Osogbo turned agency of hunters, ambitious traders, and upstart political scions from a sleepy settlement into an important Oyo-dominated eco- remapped hitherto existing sociopolitical boundaries and led nomic center that was even able to marginalize its former over- to a fusion of artistic traditions between Benin and the Yoruba lord, Ilesa. By 1905, Osogbo is said to have had about 60,000 groups standing under the influence of Oyo, the dominant polit- inhabitants, Ilesa only 5000. The extension of railway and tele- ical power which had succeeded Ife in the seventeenth century. graph lines from Lagos port to Osogbo not only strengthened Though speculative, Ogundiran’s scenario correlates with the commercial importance of the city, it also led to a further the history of Osogbo. Thus, until the early nineteenth century massive population increase (on the history of Osogbo, see Awe Osogbo played practically no role in Yoruba politics. Situated and Albert 1996). on the old Oyo/Ijesa boundary, the town stood in the shadow Traditionally, the palace’s policy for coping with the city’s expan-

(opposite) 2 Entrance to the Osun grove with UNESCO logo, Osogbo 2008.

(this page) 3 Billboard National Commission of Museums and Monuments, Osun grove, Osogbo, 2008.

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ar_24-37.indd 27 8/6/2009 7:08:41 PM sion was by way of binding the newcomers to Osun. For this, the MODERN MAN AND ANCIENT GODS king of Osogbo, as the owner of the Osun cult, declared certain Wenger was born in Austria in 1915. After her academic train- places along the river in the Osun grove as sites of minor dei- ing at art schools in Graz and Vienna, she spent eight itinerant ties, all belonging to Osun’s “royal court,” which were then given years in Nigeria before settling in Osogbo in 1958 (Probst 2009). to the newcomers as private places of worship (ìbú). Marked by Wenger, initiated into Sonponna and Obatala, two important an evergreen Peregun tree, this was where lineage members came Yoruba cults and deities, had already rebuilt Yoruba shrines in together to settle disputes, baptize newborns, or seal marriages Ede and Ilobu (Fig. 6). In Osogbo she continued her work, now with the water of Osun’s associates. In other words, the body of in collaboration with and Duro Ladipo, with whom Osun was extended into multiple localized refractions, which she started the so-called Osogbo art movement.1 While Ladipo allowed the incorporation of the new groups of worshippers into and Beier founded the famous Mbari Mbayo Club, in which the cult’s ritual body, in this way making the worshippers into citi- they organized readings, art workshops, exhibitions, concerts, zens of the state or kingdom. In the course of time, however, this and theater performances, Wenger made it her life task to pre- strategy of extended mediation seemed to have reached its lim- serve and reshape the grove of the city’s guardian deity with new its. The increase in population in conjunction with the inclusion shrines and sculptures (Fig. 7). of Osogbo into ever more encompassing mediaspheres weakened Artists were intentionally drawn from the street. The focus was the cohesive force of ìbú in favor of other spatial centers of polit- on those inhabiting the urban, popular sphere. What drove the ico-religious unity like the church and the mosque. agenda was the belief that it was incumbent upon art to leave the William Schwab (1952), an American anthropologist who did walls of the museum, to go out into the public realm and become fieldwork in Osogbo in the 1950s, has given a good account of integrated into everyday life. In view of the widespread opin- the manifold frictions and tensions resulting from this develop- ion that African art was on the verge of collapse, the aim was to ment. Being concerned mainly with the effects of urbanization reunite art and culture in order to counter effectively the alien- on the social and political organization, he did not discuss the ating effects of colonialism and capitalism on Yoruba society, as Osun grove and the integrative role of the various ìbú. However, well as colonial ideas of authenticity and an uncontaminated cul- he paints a picture of issues of land shortage and changes in the tural purity. With the world of tradition regarded as doomed and transmission of land rights leading to a kind of opening in the the world of the modern as constituting the root of all problems, use of the grove, which made it possible to fill the gap with new the only appropriate solution was the creation of new art forms— meaning and new forms of expressions. It is this historical sit- “new images”—expressing the fluid, open, and still undetermined uation which marks the context of Wenger’s arrival and which phase that society was believed to go through.2 allowed her to reshape the grove. As a project to counter the effects of colonial domination and

4 Stone sculpture by Buraimoh Gbadamosi referring to Esu. In the background the Osun river. Osun grove, 2008.

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ar_24-37.indd 28 8/6/2009 7:08:47 PM revitalize Africa’s creative energies, Osogbo was not unique. It was the goddess to protect her homestead. a time of workshops, patrons, and mediators—developments sim- Initially, Wenger’s role was restricted to the repair of the ant- ilar to Osogbo’s occurred in other parts of the continent as well infested temple. Soon after, however, the work expanded to the (Kasfir 1999:48–101). What made Osogbo a special case, though, restoration of the collapsed earthen wall that had once protected was that the focus on newness and openness permeated the the entrance to the temple. A gate and further projects followed. expressions of religious beliefs and experiences. In terms of the With each new site, the structures became larger and more work in the Osun grove, this meant that the shrines intentionally imposing. The materiality of the media, wood and cement, also departed from the conventions of Yoruba aesthetics. enabled those Wenger had recruited to help her in the project to The Shrines … have to be new and original in their concept of the express themselves. In fact, the cement architecture functioned enduringly divine. If not they are falsely affecting the spiritual flow. as a kind of canvas upon which artists inscribed their presence Their symbolism cannot persist to glorification of out-lived ideals, and visualized their own ideas. but must encourage new interpretation, individual spontaneity, and A good example is Iya Mapo, a deity associated with female spiritual independence, which modern man needs to experience with sexuality and pottery, and one of the more than forty sacred sites his gods (Wenger 1977:11). (ìbú) in the grove (Fig. 8). The structure is the result of a col- laboration between Wenger and Adibisi Akanji, a former brick- The quote is from Wenger’s book The Timeless Mind of the layer well known for his playful cement screens. In an interview Sacred, published in 1977, when the reshaping of the grove was in 2002, Akanji explained the working process as follows: in full swing. As the older members of the Osun cult recall, at We heard of Iya Mapo that she has two hands, but when we saw her the time Wenger arrived the grove was practically devoid of in the dream we discovered that she had more than two hands that we sculptures. The only major structures were a few modest, adobe- human beings have. She uses one hand to produce palm oil, another like mud temples along the river. Occasionally, clay sculptures to make pots, and another to spin cotton wool. That is why we made were erected to mark the individual places (ìbú) where various her to have many hands. We just felt that at this place it is okay for it.3 Osogbo families conducted their private rituals and sacrifices to different refractions of Osun (see above). In contrast to the tem- Like most of the other big structures in the grove, Iya Mapo ples, which belonged to the palace, these sculptures did not last was erected in the 1970s. At this time the reshaping of the grove long. But the major temples were also beginning to show signs of was well advanced and Osogbo artists profited from the new decay. White ants had begun to affect the main Osun river tem- transcontinental artscapes their “new images” had helped to ple. In addition, farmers and businessmen had moved into the generate. Negotiating exhibitions, accepting fellowships, and grove, violating the pact the founder of Osogbo had made with obtaining commissions exemplify the ways Osogbo artists were

5 Ensemble of cement figures by Adeyemi Oseni representing the arrival of the founders of Osogbo in the present settlement area. Osun grove, 2003.

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ar_24-37.indd 29 8/6/2009 7:08:53 PM 6 Shrine constructed by Susanne Wenger in the late 1950s devoted to Erinle, guardian deity of Ilobu. Ilobu 2008.

able to make active use of the flows within the artscapes. They surface, the debate was on questions of style, vulgar commercial- also illustrate the ambition to strengthen these flows with the ization, and French elitism. Ultimately at stake were issues of cul- production of ever more images. Yet it was also a time when crit- tural supremacy and the hegemony of interpretation regarding the ical voices became louder, addressing problems of authenticity meaning of “Africa” and “Black Culture.” and legitimacy in the work of the Osogbo artists and those who As much as FESTAC was an expression of Nigeria’s political promoted them. and economic self esteem as a new powerful petro-state (Apter 2005), it was also an expression of the country’s changing artistic TURNING THE NEW INTO HERITAGE discourse. Already in the early 1950s Nigeria’s then most famous The new artistic closure was part of a major shift in Nigerian and influential artist, Ben Enwonwu, had bemoaned the non- cultural politics concerning issues of heritage and authenticity, existence of a real and genuine Nigerian art movement (see culminating in 1977 in the Pan African Festival of Arts and Cul- Okeke 1995, Ogbechi 2008). With the end of colonial rule in 1960 ture (FESTAC). As Olusegun Obasanjo, then Nigeria’s head of and the emergence of work by Uche Okeke, Bruce Onabrakeya, state, put it, the aim of FESTAC was “to recapture the origins and and others, such a movement eventually emerged and affected authenticity of the African heritage” (cited in Moore 1977:20; see the public status of the Osogbo artists. Given the framing of also Apter 2005) FESTAC as a celebration of heritage and authenticity, Osogbo’s FESTAC was actually a sequel to the first Pan African Festi- “new images” became “false images,” that is, images that bore the val of Arts and Culture held 1966 in Dakar, Senegal. Conceived testimony of an overcome colonial past.5 As a result, the FES- by Senegal’s president Léopold Senghor, the original Dakar fes- TAC planning committee intended to ban Osogbo artists from tival had been basically a platform for the celebration of Négri- participating in the events. Though the exclusion was later over- tude (see Harney 2005:70ff.). As such it was first and foremost an ruled, on the level of public visibility Osogbo artists saw them- intellectual and academic event. Effective participation required selves confronted with a de facto boycott. the knowledge of the sources that formed the basis of Senghor’s In Osogbo itself the national turn towards heritage and political aesthetics or at least responded to it. Contemporary art authenticity focused less on political and artistic than on com- played only a minor role, the main focus being traditional or clas- mercial issues. As part of the FESTAC euphoria, plans emerged sical African art.4 In this respect Senghor praised Nigeria as a “star to turn the grove into a tourist complex targeting the groups of culture” and—invoking Frobenius—the “Black Greece,” a status white and African American visitors that the Osun grove and which earned it the honor of hosting the sequel to the Dakar event the annual Osun festival attracted. The money for the complex (Nzekwu 1966:82). As it turned out, however, Nigeria’s conception was supposed to come from American foundations that had of the sequel did not correspond to Senghor’s expectations. At the expressed interest in financing the project. From the perspec-

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ar_24-37.indd 30 8/6/2009 7:08:59 PM 7 Cement sculpture, Obaluaye, Susanne Wenger late 1970s, Osun grove 2001.

tive of the king and the palace the plan was welcomed. After cil was established. As the secretary of the Council pointed out: all, Osun was and still is considered to be not only the source of Perhaps one singular developmental project that ruminated many water, fertility, and prosperity, but also the source of money (ilé minds for a long time here in Osogbo was the launching of the town 6 owò). Given that understanding, to generate money from Osun into the full arena of tourism. Blessed with innumerable show pieces was not a matter of commodifying or exploiting the deity, but both natural and man-made Osogbo had coined, almost from incep- rather a practice induced, encouraged, and even exhorted by the tion, a fame for itself in the distinguished and distinct world of arts deity herself. and culture … The historical monuments and activities are to be fully Not all agreed though. Protest came especially from Wenger revived or developed into tourist attractions … There would be a and her group. Conflicts over land and the erection of new national park, amusement park … restaurants, information kiosks, preserved art works and natural features Through the Osogbo Heri- images had accompanied the reshaping of the grove right from tage Council, there is anxious vision of Osogbo becoming another the beginning. After independence King Adenle, who had Mecca or Jerusalem attracting visitors from all over the world not invited Wenger to come to Osogbo and who backed the reshap- only for sight-seeing but also for research (Osun Osogbo Festival ing project, used his political influence to ensure that the new Brochure 1986:6–7). government declared the grove a national monument. The sta- tus granted some protection. With Adenle’s death in 1976 not Artistic activities were affected by the turn towards heritage. only the incumbent of the throne but also the strategy of pro- Thus members of Wenger’s New Sacred Art Group were now tection shifted. While Adenle had focused on art, his successor working for the newly established Osogbo Museum, a branch of favored tourism. For Wenger the plan meant a banalization of the National Commission of Museums and Monuments. Even the grove. Serious conflicts between her group and the palace Wenger herself was put on the payroll of the museum, whose developed (Probst 2007). The dispute culminated in 1985 over director now acted as a mediator between Wenger and the pal- the erection of one of Kasali Akangbe’s elongated wooden statues ace. Work shifted from the building of shrines to the erection at the market place opposite the Osogbo palace. The figure’s erect of new representational structures like a new iron gate at the penis caused an outcry of protest and led to a public debate over entrance to the Osun river temple and a VIP pavilion for high- the role of Wenger in Yoruba art and religion in general and in ranking guests during the annual Osun festival (Fig. 9). Osogbo’s Osun cult in particular. During a meeting of the Local A similar development happened among the Osogbo art- Government Traditional Council, members of the council con- ists who had come out of Beier’s workshops. What can be seen demned Wenger’s “gross disrespect for our cherished antiquities” here is a kind of “branding” of Osogbo art with certain stylistic and her “profaning our tradition and cultural heritage.”7 features—like Twins Seven Seven’s ornamental scale drawings, A few months later, in August 1986, the Osogbo Heritage Coun- Rufus Ogundele’s painterly adoption of Yoruba crown iconog-

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ar_24-37.indd 31 8/6/2009 7:09:03 PM 8 Cement sculpture, Iya Mapo, Susanne Wenger and Adebisi Akanji, late 1970s, Osun grove 2002.

raphy, and Jimoh Buraimoh’s bead paintings—becoming the mulated in 1994 in the so-called NARA declaration. In contrast primary expressions of Osogbo art (Fig. 10). Just as Osogbo art to the previously held universalist conception, this document became heritage art, heritage tourism also became a source of subscribed to a relativist approach, rejecting any fixed judg- income. Thus in 1982 Nike Okundaye founded the Nike Centre ment concerning the value and meaning of authenticity.8 While for Art and Culture. In 1985 Jimoh Buraimoh started his night- authenticity was retained as a crucial criterion in assessing the club and hotel. In 1987 opened up his arts- and value of a heritage site, the determination of authenticity itself tourist-oriented Obatala Centre in nearby Iragbiji. A year later, was left to the party nominating a site. The second shift con- in 1988, the Osogbo musician Okonfo founded the Jungle Com- cerned the emergence of postcolonial theory and identity poli- munication Centre, where he held music workshops for mostly tics. As we have seen, in the 1970s the “new images” coming out German tourists. Two years later, Jimoh Buraimoh expanded his of Osogbo did not resonate with the new national visual lan- hotel and renamed it Heritage International Hotel. In line with guage coming out of Nsukka. An appreciation came only some that trend, Twins Seven Seven purchased land in the nearby vil- two decades later. Through the new theorization of “border lage of Sekola and, from the early 1990s onwards, began to build zones” and the work of cultural translation, the Osogbo project the Paradise Resort, an idiosyncratic mixture of a Yoruba theme appeared as a postcolonial project avant la lettre. In fact, Homi park, culture center, and tourist resort. Bhabha’s idea of “border art” reads as if it is modelled after the Contrary to people’s hopes, heritage tourism, the dream of the practices prevailing in Osogbo during the transition from colo- 1970s and 1980s, did not come to fruition. In fact, with the per- nialism to independence: version of power under the Abacha military regime, the 1990s Border art demands an encounter with newness that is not part of the were a period of decline. Change and a wave of new aspirations continuum of past and present. It creates the sense of the now as an only came about in the early 2000s. After a phase of political clo- insurgent act of cultural translation. Such art does not merely recall sure, a new phase of flow set in. Thus the start of the new millen- the past as social cause or aesthetic precedent; it renews the past, nium meant not only Osogbo’s reentry into the UNESCO heritage refiguring it as a contingent “in-between” space, that innovates and empire but also a reconfiguration of the Osun grove’s authenticity. interrupts performance of the present. The “past present” becomes part of the necessity not the nostalgia of living (1994:7). GOING GLOBAL To understand how both the reentry and the reconfiguration Given this conceptual revision of the Osogbo case, the postco- took place, we need to distinguish what happened in Osogbo, lonial discourse affected also the realm of global heritage politics. Abuja, and Paris. As for the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Thus, together with the postmodern wave of deconstructiv- policy of awarding the World Heritage designation had changed. ism, the postcolonial critique of power gave the long-standing Two basic conceptual shifts were responsible for this. One con- critique of the Eurocentric bias of UNESCO’s understanding cerned UNESCO’s revised understanding of authenticity, for- of “world heritage” a theoretical foundation. A practical effect

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ar_24-37.indd 32 8/6/2009 7:09:07 PM was the “Africa 2009” program. Launched by UNESCO in 1998, in 2003, their efforts were crowned with success. But the nomi- the aim was to provide African nation states with the necessary nation of the Osun grove had also made progress. In the sum- technical and administrative equipment to enable them to suc- mer of the same year, a delegation of UNESCO consultants and cessfully nominate sites situated on the African continent to local and state authorities arrived in Osogbo to inspect the Osun the UNESCO World Heritage Center in order to transform the grove. The latter expressed their willingness to fix the critical imperial structure of the global heritage landscape. issues listed by the consultants but pointed to economic con- The result of this policy was Nigeria’s first World Heritage site: straints. The consultants responded by stressing the implica- Sukur, a “cultural landscape” in the Mandara Hills at the bor- tions of a successful nomination: World Heritage Sites trigger der with Cameroon, was added to the UNESCO list in 1999. The economic growth in the host communities by attracting tourists declaration coincided with the return of Olusegun Obasanjo and therefore lead to the establishment of a viable tourist infra- into Nigerian politics in 1999. Obasanjo had been head of state structure. The message was well received. A few months before from 1976 to 1979 and FESTAC had been conducted under his the Osogbo Progressive Union had launched Osogbo’s own command. In view of FESTAC’s success, Obasanjo was eager to web site—www.osogbocity.com. Under the rubric “investment revive the issue of heritage as an important part of his politics. opportunities” it noted: In 2000 he appointed the Yoruba priest and archaeologist Given the right push, Osogbo has the natural and precedent tendency Omotoso Eluyemi as new director general of the National Com- of becoming a true African “Disney World” with her God-endowed mission for Museums and Monuments and Michael Omolewa, landscape, thick rain forest, and above all abundance of natural artis- a professor of adult education of the University of Ibadan, as tically inclined talents. In Osogbo, notable among the many places Nigeria’s ambassador and permanent delegate to UNESCO. They of cultural entrancing interests are the Obafemi Awolowo University were later joined by Wande Abimbola, a prominent Ifa priest and Museum at Popo Street, Nike Art Gallery, Susan Wenger’s studio at “Special Advisor on Cultural Affairs and Traditional Matters” to Ibokun Road, the Osun grove, the Ataoja’s old and new palaces, bus- Obasanjo. The three prepared an official application to enlist tling trading activities at Oja Oba or Orisunbare markets etc. Osogbo also play host to thousands of visitors who come from all across the important features of Yoruba culture in the UNESCO program. globe to see and appreciate authentic African arts and also participate For the newly implemented category of intangible heritage, in the annual Osun-Osogbo Festival. efforts focused on Ifa and Gelede, for the established category of tangible heritage the target was the Osun grove. Providing the “right push” was left to the new governor of With the inscription of Ifa and Gelede into the UNESCO list Osun state, Olagunsoye Oyinlola. As son of late Oba Moses Oye-

9 New iron gate at the entrance to the Osun river temple by Mackay Tsemuya— an Igbo artist not residing in Osogbo. The depiction of Osun as a mermaid/Mami Wata is a recent development and correlates with the growing economic importance of the Osun grove. Osun grove 2003.

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ar_24-37.indd 33 8/6/2009 7:09:12 PM tee saw the decision as an expression of Osun’s global power. As a prominent representative stated: “Recently the Osun Goddess had established her kingdom across the globe and this is why the UNESCO had declared the Osun grove as a World Heritage Site” (Osun Osogbo Festival Brochure 2006:21). As it happened, the UNESCO decision fell together with Wenger’s ninetieth birthday. The palace and the governor of Osun state organized a birthday party and erected big birthday billboards in the city (Fig. 13). The media coverage and the visit of many high-ranking Nigerian officials gave Wenger a prom- inent platform to raise her concerns with regard to an uncon- trolled commercialization of the grove and festival. Subsequently the Coca-Cola logo on the newly built restrooms in the Osun grove did in fact disappear. For Infogem’s Managing Director Michael Ayo Olumoko however, the challenge was of a different nature: We should feel proud today for the global recognition conferred on this festival. By all means, this is no longer a local festival because the Osun Oshogbo Grove, this year, has been listed as one of the World Heritage Sites. From now on, we can not afford to present any- thing less than a world class show. We can not allow the challenges for excellence to overcome us. As marketers of the Osun Osogbo Festival, Infogem Limited is redoubly committed to exploring new avenues and knocking on every door of opportunity (Osun Osogbo Festival Brochure 2005:45). Indeed, with the UNESCO listing, finding “new avenues” has become easier. Thus in 2007 with the new definition of the grove as “Nigeria’s ecotourism destination” Infogem was able to raise 200 million naira (more than US$1.6 million) in sponsoring wole Oyinlola, the Olukuku of Okuku, with whom Ulli Beier money.10 Sponsors included Seaman’s Schnapps, Nigeria Televi- had collaborated closely in the 1950s and 1960s, Oyinlola had a sion Authority (NTA), African Independent Television (AIT), personal connection with Osogbo, a circumstance that paid off. and the main sponsor: MTN, Nigeria’s leading telecommunica- Thus, prior to Oyinlola’s election as governor, the financial com- tion company. From an economic point of view, prospects for mitment of the Osun state to the festival was less than 100,000 the future of the festival are rosy. In June 2008, Infogem signed naira. With Oyinlola, the stakes were not only raised consider- a five-year deal with the Osogbo Heritage Council that secured ably, but he also encouraged the Osogbo Palace and Heritage the company the sole rights to market the festival.11 Council to join a public/private partnership with Infogem Nige- Surely, there are many who reject this development. For ria Limited, a Lagos based marketing firm and event organizer. instance, in September 2008 the BBC carried an article titled Infogem’s involvement turned out to be highly effective. Dur- “Marketing ‘Killing Nigerian Festival’” which caused a minor ing the festival, Coca Cola transformed Osogbo’s visual land- outcry in cyberspace (Walker 2008). As much as the concern scape and turned the city into a dominion of the festival’s main is justified, one needs to be careful not to fall into the trap of a sponsor (Fig. 11) Throughout the city countless Coca Cola ban- modernist separation between culture and commerce. That is to ners, flags, and billboards were posted. At the palace, Coca Cola- say, the critique is based upon a sharp compartmentalization of sponsored singing contests took place; in the grove the company objects and activities with distinctly different audiences, curato- financed the erection of restrooms whose wooden doors were rial practices, and visual ideologies. It was and still is, however, now decorated with a carved Coca Cola logo above Osun as a precisely the basic interconnectedness of commerce, art, and fes- mermaid (Fig. 12). tivity in Yoruba culture that enabled Osogbo to reinvent itself as The move caused vehement protests on the part of Wenger a heritage site (see also Appadurai and Breckenridge 2002). and her supporters. Their effect remained limited, however. The reinvention also affects the arts. Among the investment From the perspective of Infogem and even some devotees, the opportunities Infogem offers to sponsors is the so-called artist relationship between the sponsor and the deity was quite fitting. village. Situated next to the Osun grove, the village will demon- After all, the global reach of the soft drink corresponded with strate Osogbo’s international fame as a city of arts and heritage. the global reach of the deity. The announcement of the success- To that effect, studios will be built, each housing one or two art- ful inscription of the Osun grove into the UNESCO in July 2005 ists working in Osogbo today with whom tourists can interact. was therefore not a surprise. While the official explanation in Work will not be limited to modern art but will comprise tra- the UNESCO document focused on issues of environment, dias- ditional artistic activities like dyeing, pottery, carving, or black- pora, and cross-cultural exchange,9 the local heritage commit- smithing. The arrangement will enable tourists to understand

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ar_24-37.indd 34 8/6/2009 7:09:16 PM (opposite) 10 “Twins Style” is a phrase referring to paintings honoring the popularity and success of the work of Osogbo’s most prominent artist, Twins Seven Seven. Osogbo’s galleries are full of these visual praise works. An example of a work in “Twins Style” is Aro Femi’s The Hunter (2008). Nike Art Gallery, Osogbo.

(this page) 11 Coca-Cola signboard on the way to the Osun grove, Osogbo 2002.

12 Resthouse Osun grove with Coca-Cola logo and Osun as mermaid/Mami Wata. The wavelike struc- ture of the cement-coated surface alludes to the fl ow of the Osun river. Osun Grove, 2006. PHOTO: HEIDI MIMRA

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ar_24-37.indd 35 8/24/2009 4:28:53 PM 13 Birthday billboard at the occasion of Wenger’s 90th birthday, Osogbo 2005. PHOTO: HEIDI MIMRA

and appreciate the particular “style” of Osogbo art. In line with source of authority external to it. Hence, changes in authority this policy, in summer 2008 the Heritage Council, the Festival often affected the authenticity of a given object. Committee, and Infogem announced the plan to “immortal- The rise of the Osun grove to a UNESCO World Heritage site ize” Wenger by organizing a “Susanne Wenger Heritage Sacred reflects this hidden subtext of authenticity. But there is more Art Exhibition” and an annual Wenger symposium at the Nige- to it. Authenticity has not only been reconfigured. Rather, its rian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, prior to the start reconfiguration was a result of the reappropriation of the objects of the festival.12 The announcement occurred before Wenger that led to the dispute over their authenticity in the first place. passed away in January 2009. It might well be that the intended Needless to say a master plan for that reappropriation did not “immortalization” will follow the same lines as the reauthentica- exist. The actors differed and so did the modes and motives tion of the Osun grove. of appropriation. Still, taken together the heritagization of the grove’s images in terms of turning the once new into expres- CONCLUSION sions of heritage seems to have been taken over by something At the beginning of this essay I noted the difficulty a study of which, for lack of a better word, might be called the deification contemporary Osogbo presents. As I pointed out, it is one thing of heritage. In fact, belief in heritage and in Yoruba deities have to conceptualize the hybridity of objects; it is another to unite much in common. Just as the idea of the authenticity of heritage this study with the hybridity of subjects producing such objects. changes, so do the imageries of deities such as Osun. The capac- My answer to that challenge was to look into the flows and clo- ity of reconfiguration is characteristic to both. Furthermore, the sures that structure the appropriation and authentication of both turning of ancestors into deities also seems to inform the plans subjects and objects. That the analysis has shown a clear linkage of the Osogbo Heritage Council to “immortalize” Wenger. Of between authenticity and power should not come as a surprise. course, deities only live as long as they have devotees to revere What we are confronted with is another layer of authenticity, a them. Yet the same applies to heritage. Both are ongoing proj- layer that has become almost forgotten in the wake of modern- ects, continuously evolving and changing. ist reframings of the concept. Thus, the legal reading of authen- ticity in terms of that which is authorized, credible, convincing, Peter Probst is associate professor at the Department of Art History at Tufts University where he teaches African art and visual culture. His and trustworthy is much older than the nineteenth century aes- fieldwork in Cameroon, Malawi, and Nigeria has resulted in numerous thetic understanding of authenticity in terms of sincerity, gen- publications on heritage, memory, modernity, and visual theory. In 2009 uineness, truth, and the sublime (see Knaller 2006). Rooted in he completed the manuscript for his new book, provisionally titled Keep- ancient Greek and Roman questions over the interpretation of ing the Goddess Alive: The Art of Heritage in Postcolonial Nigeria. Peter. written documents, authenticity was understood as a quality that [email protected] did not rest in the text itself but was endowed upon it from a

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ar_24-37.indd 36 8/6/2009 7:09:27 PM Notes an Austrian artist, into the Yoruba community have Harro Mueller, pp. 17–35. Munich: Fink. proved to be a fertile exchange of ideas that revived the This paper is part of a larger research project on art, Lawal, Babatunde. 1977. “The Search for Identity in sacred Osun Grove.” 2. “The Osun Sacred Grove is the media, and heritage politics in postcolonial Nigeria. Contemporary Nigerian Art.” Studio International largest and perhaps the only remaining example of a Research was carried out in several intervals of five to two (March–April):145–50. once widespread phenomenon that used to character- months length between 2000 and 2008. I am grateful to ise every Yoruba settlement. It now represents Yoruba Meyer, Birgit, and Peter Geschiere, eds. 1999. Globaliza- the German Research Foundation and Tufts University sacred groves and their reflection of Yoruba cosmology.” tion and Identity: The Dialectics of Flow and Closure. for generous research grants. For precious help and assis- 3. “The Osun Sacred Grove is a tangible expression of Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell tance in Nigeria, I want to acknowledge my gratitude to Yoruba divinatory and cosmological systems; its annual Adigun Ajani, Abiodun Adediran, Sangodare Gbadegesin Moore, Sylvia. 1977. The Afro-Black Connection: Festac festival is a living, thriving and evolving response Ajala, the late Osuntogun Osanike, Jimoh Buraimoh, and 77. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute. to Yoruba beliefs in the bond between people, their Heidi Mimra. I also want to thank Hans Belting and Lutz ruler and the Osun goddess” (World Heritage Centre Myers, Fred, ed. 2001. The Empire of Things: Regimes of Musner, who invited me for a fellowship at the Institute 2005:35–36). Value and Material Culture. Durham, NC: Duke Uni- for Advanced Cultural Studies (IFK) in Vienna, Austria, 10 www.guardiannewsngr.com/sunday_magazine/ versity Press. where I was able to finish the book manuscript and think article34/071007 through some of the arguments presented here. Last Nzweku, Onuora. 1966. “Nigeria, Negritude, and 11 www.tribune.com.ng/04072008/wed/tourism. but not least I want to thank Ferdinand de Jong for his the World Festival of Negro Arts.” Nigeria Magazine html insightful comments on an earlier version of the paper. 89:80–94. 12 Susanne Wenger Heritage Sacred Art Exhibition 1 A good description of the movement is given by flyer, Infogem 2008. Ogbechi, Sylvester. 2008. Ben Enwonwu: Making of an Beier (1968, 1991) himself. Georgina Beier, the fourth African Modernist. Rochester, NY: University of Roch- person instrumental in founding the movement, came ester Press. only in 1963. References cited 2 In 1966 Ulli Beier and Frank Speed did a docu- Ogundiran, Akinwumi. 2003. “Pathways to Cultural mentary on Osogbo art titled New Images in a Chang- Abiodun, Rowland. 2001. “Hidden Power: Osun the History of Yoruba-Edo Region, 500 bc–ad 1800.” In ing Society. Seventeenth Odu.” In Osun Across the Waters: A Yoruba Sources and Methods in African History, eds. Toyin 3 Interview with Adebisi Akanji, August 12, 2002. Goddess in Africa and the Americas, ed. Joseph Murphy Falola and Christian Jennings, pp. 33–79, Rochester, 4 The leading Western authorities on the subject and Mei Mei Sanford, pp. 10–33. Bloomington: Indiana NY: University of Rochester Press. University Press were invited, including Jacques Maquet, Germaine Okeke, Chika. 1995. “The Quest: From Zaria to Nsukka.” Dieterlen, Douglas Fraser, Michel Leiris, Roger Bastide, Appadurai, Arjun, and Carol Breckenridge. 2002. In Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa, ed. Cath- Ulli Beier, and Bernhard and William Fagg. Fagg’s Nige- “Museums are Good to Think: Heritage on View in erine Deliss, pp. 38–75, Paris: Flammarion. rian Images received the first prize in the art literature India.” In Representing the Nation, ed. David Boswell Osogbo Cultural Heritage Council. 1986. Osun Festival section. The other two awards went to Robin Horton’s and Jessica Evans, pp. 404–20. London: Routledge. Kalabari Sculpture and Beier’s Nigerian Mud Sculpture. Brochure. Osogbo: Local Government Printer. Apter, Andrew. 2005. The Pan African Nation: Oil and See Moore 1977:15. ______. 2005. Osun Festival Brochure. Lagos: Infogem. 5 In a biting critique, significantly titled “The the Spectacle of Culture in Nigeria. Chicago: University Search for Identity in Nigerian Art,” Babatunde Lawal of Chicago Press. ______. 2006. Osun Festival Brochure. Lagos: Infogem. (1977:145) characterized Osogbo art as “… a psychodra- Awe, Bolanle, and Albert Owalewale. 1995. “Historical Probst, Peter. 2007. “Picturing the Past: Heritage, Pho- matic outpour of images that invited the comparison Development of Osogbo.” In Osogbo: Model of Grow- tography and the Politics of Appearance in a Yoruba with psychotic art …Whether by design or accident, ing African Towns, ed. Cornelius Adepegba, pp. 1–11. City.” In Reclaiming Heritage: Alternative Imaginaries the type of identity which Osogbo art has tried to give Ibadan: Institute of African Studies. of Memory in West Africa, ed. Ferdinand de Jong and Nigeria abroad and Africa is that of the innocent Afri- Michael Rowlands, pp. 99–126. Walnut Creek, CA : Left Beier, Ulli. 1968. Contemporary African Art. New York: can child at the crossroads of modernization.” See also Coast Press. Robinson 1977. Praeger. ______. 2008. “The Modernity of Heritage.” InFigura - 6 Restrictions exist, though. Thus devotees initi- ______. 1991. Thirty Years of Osogbo Art. Bayreuth: tions of Modernity: Global and Local Representations ated into the Osun cult and therefore authorized to Iwalewa Haus. divine and heal are expected to deliver their services in Comparative Perspectives, eds. Vincent Houben and for free or a minimal fee. Moreover, there is good and Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Mona Schrempf, pp. 155–78, Frankfurt: Campus. Routledge. bad money. The former is known as “cool money” ______. 2009. “Modernism against Modernity: A (ówó tutu), like the cool water coming from (the) Osun Falola, Toyin, and Akanmu Adebayo. 2000. Culture, Tribute to Susanne Wenger.” Critical Interventions: (river); the latter is “hot money” (ówó eru), obtained by Politics, and Money among the Yoruba. Edison, NJ: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture 2 treachery or deceit. See Adebayo and Falola 2000. Transaction Publishers. (1):245–55. 7 Osogbo Local Government Traditional Council, Geschiere, Peter. 2009. The Perils of Belonging: Autoch- January 15, 1985. I am grateful to Ulli Beier for letting Schwab, William B. 1952. The Political and Social Orga- thony, Citizenship, and Exclusion in Africa and Europe. me read and quote from the document. nization of the Urban African Community—Osogbo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 8 Paragraph 11 of the document states: “All judg- Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University. ments about values attributed to cultural properties as Harney, Elizabeth. 2004. In Senghor’s Shadow: Art, Poli- Robinson, Alma. 1977. “African Arts in Foreign Hands.” well as the credibility of related information sources tics, and the Avant-garde in Senegal. Durham, NC: Duke In The Black and African World, FESTAC 77, pp. 56–69. may differ from culture to culture, and even within the University Press. Lagos: Africa Journal Ltd. same culture. It is thus not possible to base judgments Kasfir, Sidney. 1999.Contemporary African Art. London: Walker, Andrew. 2008. “Marketing ‘Killing Nigerian of values and authenticity within fixed criteria. On the Thames and Hudson. Festival’.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7593852.stm contrary, the respect due to all cultures requires that heritage properties must be considered and judged ______. 2007. African Art and the Colonial Encounter. Wenger, Susanne. 1977. The Timeless Mind of the Sacred. within the cultural contexts to which they belong.” Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Ibadan: Institute of African Studies. http://whc.unesco.org/archive/nara94.htm. Knaller, Susanne. 2006. “Genealogie des Ästhetischen World Heritage Centre. 2005. Osun Osogbo Sacred 9 The official UNESCO document lists three Authentizitätsbegriffs”. InAuthentizität. Diskussionen Grove. Ref. 1118. Paris: UNESCO points. 1. “The development of the movement of New eines Ästhetischen Begriffs, ed. Susanne Knaller and Sacred Artists and the absorption of Suzanne Wenger,

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