Promoting African traditional religion, culture and heritage was the focus at the 2011 congress of registered traditionalist groups and associations in Lagos held on Thursday, August 11, at the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture, Ikeja.

Assistant director of the council, Segun Sotunde, disclosed that the aim of the event is to encourage people’s involvement in promoting and reviving “our cultural heritage.” He explained that the annual meeting was an “interactive session where people could bare their minds on cultural programmes, activities, and initiatives.”

He added that, “traditional religious worshippers, those who have faith in traditional religion, stakeholders generally, those interested in the promotion of arts and culture, are the people expected to be part of this programme.”

Groomed with herbs

Echoing Sotunde, director of the Art council, Shina Elegbede, noted that the event was an opportunity to promote traditional religion and discuss issues related to it.

“We are gathered here this morning to show that we do not have only Christians and Muslims in this country, but to show that people who practise the religion of our forefathers still exist and are many.”

Elegbede underscored the importance of traditional medicine by noting that people were groomed with ‘ewe’ (herbs) and ‘agbo’ (infusions) before the advent of modern medicine.

Traditional medicine, he insisted, was passed down by our forefathers who found it helpful. The director also tried to clear the air on the confusion between ‘onisegun’ (traditional healer) and ‘babalawo. A traditional ruler is a specialist in healing people with herbs, while the ‘babalawo’ does much more than that.

“When you say babalawo, when you have a problem and you want to consult people who are at the realms. They consult Ifa oracle and tell you what the problem is, the type of ritual to put together and use for sacrifice. On the other hand, traditional healers treat you if you have malaria, typhoid and small pox. At times, these people know what to do before the crisis of smallpox and chickenpox enters the community, they consult Ifa and do the rituals.”

One God

Elegbede also decried the tendency of some to disparage traditional medicine. He said traditionalists deserve respect, like people of other religions. “We must all join hands together to move this country forward. As they pray in the church, they also pray in the mosque, babalawo too does his own thing because, ask anybody, they will tell you that there is only one God.”

Bunmi Omoseyindemi, chair, Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board and guest lecturer at the event, examined the relationship between religion and traditional medicine.

“There is cultural confusion that has been brought upon our people and our people are mixing the two together,” noted Omoseyindemi.

“They are interwoven but essentially the one people are pushing is traditional religion, finding a way to make sure that we utilise our traditional medicine, generally for the betterment of our people. We have to tell the people that they should not be culturally confused, they must accept what their forefathers have been doing.”

Omoseyindemi lamented the relegation of culture and tradition to the background in Nigerian society.

“You see the Chinese practising their culture, other people from other parts of the world are proud of their culture. Indians are proud of their culture, the Germans are also proud of their culture, the British are proud of their culture but because we have been colonised and have inferiority complex, we start ignoring what we have and we are trying to tell others that our forefathers did not know what they were doing,”

Reiterating the importance of culture, Omoseyindemi advised that people should learn to appreciate their cultural heritage. “We should be able to accept our culture. Anybody without a culture and history is a dead person.”

The medical doctor and traditionalist suggested that a perfect way to imbibe Nigerian culture is to “look into the past” and learn the practices of our forefathers.

U mean the Jesus freaks didn't denounce this thread as demonic! I'm shocked.