When the end drew near for the priestess of Osun, the elements combined and a sudden midday rain started and ended abruptly in Osogbo, Osun State capital, on Monday.


After the rain, Wenger, 93, passed on at the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Hospital, Osogbo. Before she died, Wenger, who was surrounded at her sickbed by some of her 15 adopted children, asked, ”What day of the week is it? What time of the day is it?”

When answers were given to her inquiries, she replied, ”It‘s time to go. It‘s good. It‘s ok.” And with these words, she breathed her last in the presence of her first adopted son, Chief Sangodare Gbadegesin Ajala and her adopted daughter, Chief Doyin Faniyi.

Recalling how the culture matriach passed on, Ajala attributed her transition to old age. ”She died of old age. She was not particularly sick. She spent only a day in the hospital. A few minutes before her death, she took her bath and was served her tea, which she drank.

”In the last seven days to her demise, she called us (her children) together and talked about the philosophies of life; religion and culture with us. She engaged us for one and a half hours everyday on different topics. She said we should preserve our culture and religion.

”She was unhappy that the Osun grove was not being taken care of properly and that many of her artworks are in a state of neglect at the grove,” he said.

According to her adopted daughter, no part of Wenger was removed during the burial rites performed in the forest grove late Monday night by Oro and Osun worshippers. It was said that Wenger specifically requested not to be kept in the mortuary but to be buried immediately.

Faniyi said, ”She doesn‘t want any tomb to be erected for her. She doesn‘t want anyone to know where she‘s buried. She just wants to be buried without fanfare. But we are going on with all rites which will be in segments.

”We are commencing with a seven-day ritual and this will be followed by a 16-day ritual and another 21-day ritual.”

Before her death on Monday, she was seldom seen in public due to old age. Her last public outing was in 2005 when artists, who went through her tutelage in arts and craft, celebrated her 90th birthday in Lagos.

As expected, tributes have continued to trail her transition. Ambassador Segun Olusola thanked God for her fulfilled life while recalling the times in the 70s when they would carry her all the way from Osogbo to Victoria Island, Lagos, to participate in television programmes. “She was well versed in the Yoruba pantheon of the gods with which she was actively engaged,” he said. He also described her as a significant member of the Yoruba cultural leaders. “She left a very straight forward relationship of her devotion to the goddess. She also nurtured younger ones in the traditional way,” he said.

painful as her death is, it is consoling that she lived a fulfilled life and was celebrated severally in her life time with the biggest recognition – a national honour of Member of the Federal Republic – accorded her by President Umaru Yar‘Adua just two weeks ago. That was Osun State Governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, acknowledging the contributions of late Susanne Wenger, MFR, whose remarkable devotion to the worship of the Osun Osogbo boosted the annual festival, giving it an international status. The late artist saw the potential in the festival and employed artists that added essence to the celebration of the goddess.

Oyinlola described her death as the end of an era in the cultural world, and a loss to the entire world because she had become a bridge across cultures and continents. Her life, he said, ”was a lesson in being true to oneself and to whatever one is committed to.

”The late artist represented a bridge across continents and across cultures. She came from the western Europe in the early 1950s in search of what her partner, Ulli Beier, tagged, Ori Inu (her real essence), which she later discovered in the bosom of the spirituality of Osun.”

He noted that through her singular effort, Osun Grove has become world renown and preserved for posterity, adding that she would be greatly missed by all lovers of culture across the globe.

For Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Nigeria to UNESCO, Prof. Michael Omolewa, ”Wenger left her mark and legacies indelibly on the cultural map of world, and she will always be remembered for her impressive works, love of Yoruba people, passion for the development of the African cultural heritage, and encouragement of truly global cultural village. Although she is dead, her name and her works will live for as long as culture lasts in the world.”

The governorship candidate, Osun Action Congress, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, calls on the Federal Government to immortalise Wenger, whose death, he described as the end of an era.

A statement by the party‘s Director of Media, Mr. Gbenga Fayemiwo, on Tuesday, in Osogbo, said the ”indelible marks made by Wenger on African culture will last till the end of history.”

”We salute her deep insight, vision and perseverance to attain the stardom that her sojourn accomplished in Nigeria. If anybody deserves credit for the eventual recognition of the Osun Festival as a World Heritage Centre, Susanne Wenger‘s name stands tall as an Amazon of World Culture.”

As a young Austrian girl, the late Wenger began her sojourn in Nigeria in the 50s during a chance visit to the famous Osun grove and that became a defining point in her life.

She threw herself wholly into the worship of the Osun goddess and in that, her life took on a meaning. She succeeded in integrating her art into nature and the worship that is the essence of the Osun grove.

An artist and a sculptor, she studied art in Graz and Vienna. She was a part of the famous Vienna Art Club and after the Second World War; she took her art to Italy and Switzerland where she had exhibitions together with the famous artists at the time in the gallery, Des Eaux Vives in Zurich. In 1949, Susanne went to Paris, where she met Ulli Beier who was being posted to work in West Africa. They got married and in the 50s, both arrived in Nigeria.

They lived in Ibadan for a while and from there, they moved to Ede. She was quickly integrated into the culture of the people. It was in Ede that Susanne Wenger met a powerful Obantala priest, Ajagemo, who initiated her into the traditional Yoruba worship of Orisha. She would spend the next 50 plus years living as an ”Adunni Olorisha” among the Yoruba people in Nigeria in West Africa.

The name, Adunni Olorisha signified a bridge between two cultures – European and Yoruba. She became an important part of the rich traditional cult life in Osogbo, which annually climaxed in the festival of the river, the Osun Osogbo Festival. Her love for the Yoruba culture saw her leaving her husband to embrace the Yoruba traditional religion wholly. She was later remarried to a drummer, the late Ayansola Oniru.

Wenger was essentially a spiritual being. From a very early age, she had been strongly attracted to nature and specifically by trees - in which she was said to have recognised ”the images of sacredness”.

She was said to have specifically requested to be buried immediately and would not want her final resting place known for fear it could be turned into a tourist site. She was laid to rest in one of the sacred shrines in the groove.

To the uninitiated, late Wenger, known as Adunni Olorisa, was just a lover of nature. But she was more than that: she was a believer in that which is deeply etched in man- his essence. She searched and, her husband then, a German linguist, Ulli Beier, said, she found her real essence, which he called Ori-inu, in the worship of the Osun Osogbo. She became Adunni Olorisha which means ‘the loved one who worships the deity,‘ and was influential in the listing of the Osun Grove as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005.

The Punch.

RIP to her!!

what an awesome and remarkable woman, i wish the federal government will immortalise her and acknowledge the great job she has done in her lifetime, in this day and age when african americans look down on africans,a caucasian austrian woman gave her life in service to our cultures and that should be acknowledged and appreciated

May her soul rest peacefully.
wud she be buried in 9ja

yeah

R.I.P

She saw in our land what most of us africans can't see,harmony and richness of nature.

She lived well.

may her soul rest in peace. but pls can we see the pix? dont think i know her