Ase Odun Olokun, the Or­isha Fes­ti­val of the Ocean and Plan­e­tary Wa­ters, will take place in To­ba­go on Sat­ur­day, Oc­to­ber 8 and Sun­day, Oc­to­ber 9. Sat­ur­day’s ac­tiv­i­ties will in­clude a lec­ture pan­el, her­itage site vis­its, and mu­sic and danc­ing. Sun­day is the Rit­u­al Day and this will take place at the his­toric Ny­lon Pool. All are in­vit­ed. Pack­ages are avail­able which in­clude: boat tick­ets to To­ba­go; ac­com­mo­da­tion at the Roy­al Princess Apart­ments and oth­er venues; ground trans­port; and more.

Since 2014, the Ocean Fes­ti­val has re­turned to To­ba­go every four years. To­ba­go is the seat of the late States­man, Prime Min­is­ter, and Pres­i­dent Arthur NR Robin­son TC, OCC, SC who was Chief Olokun Ig­baro, the first African not born on the con­ti­nent to hold the Olokun chief­tain­cy ti­tle. The first To­ba­go Olokun Fes­ti­val in 2014 was held there in trib­ute to him. Apart from be­ing the de­ity of oceans and plan­e­tary wa­ters, Olokun is al­so the guardian of the African di­as­po­ra.

In its 26th year, Ase Odun Olokun is one of the fastest grow­ing and most sig­nif­i­cant fes­ti­vals in the Or­isha com­mu­ni­ty. It is where man’s in­dis­pens­able link and con­nec­tiv­i­ty to wa­ter and the force of the ocean is cel­e­brat­ed.

The Or­isha com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to be­lieve that com­mu­nion with the ocean is nec­es­sary for our sur­vival, es­pe­cial­ly as an is­land peo­ple.

Par­tic­i­pants are giv­en a greater aware­ness of the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of hu­man be­ings in main­tain­ing plan­e­tary health, equi­lib­ri­um, and pu­ri­ty. Such re­flec­tion is im­por­tant as T&T’s ma­rine en­vi­ron­ment con­tin­ues to face threats such as seis­mic bomb tests, chem­i­cal and oil spills, over-fish­ing, and tonnes of plas­tic and oth­er lit­ter from the pub­lic find­ing its ways in­to the ocean, killing plant and an­i­mal life there.

FILE: Esugbayi Olukayode, chairman of Egbe Onisin Eledumare meets Chief Olokun Igbaro, former president Arthur NR Robinson.

Tonnes of top­soil from our moun­tains are al­so washed in­to the sea every year be­cause of our habits of in­dis­crim­i­nate cut­ting of hill­side trees, and bush fires.

Ase Odun Olokun is host­ed by Egbe On­isin Ele­du­mare—an African spir­i­tu­al or­gan­i­sa­tion func­tion­al in Ile-Iere, Trinidad To­ba­go, since 1971.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion has con­sis­tent­ly been one of the most pro­gres­sive voic­es for Or­isha and African tra­di­tions in T&T. Egbe On­isin Ele­du­mare is the first or­gan­i­sa­tion in the Re­pub­lic Trinidad & To­ba­go to host and cel­e­brate Ase Odun Olokun.

Over the years, the Egbe has pi­o­neered in the cam­paign­ing for the pas­sage of the Or­isha Mar­riage Act; and in hold­ing two ma­jor Or­isha and African Tra­di­tions Con­fer­ences in T&T. The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so broke ground when it field­ed the first Or­isha Car­ni­val band and placed the first Or­isha Queen of Car­ni­val con­tes­tant on the Sa­van­nah stage.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion con­tin­ues to bat­tle for the ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the deep sig­nif­i­cance of this cel­e­bra­tion as it re­lates to spir­i­tu­al lib­er­a­tion, eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties and re­ju­ve­na­tion of African iden­ti­ty.

To re­serve at­ten­dance at this year’s Ase Odun Olokun please call or What­sApp 797-0949 or 681-4117 for de­tails or check out the Ase Odun Olokun Face­book page: https://www.face­book.com/ASE-ODUN-Olokun-877295442385665.

Ase Odun Olokun- the Orisha Festival of the Ocean and Planetary Waters