The annual Orisha Ocean Festival–Ase Odun Olokun–will be held over three days, from this Friday to Sunday.
Tomorrow, the opening ceremony will be held at the Shrine at 12 First Street, Sparrow Drive, Simeon Road, Petit Valley from 7-9 pm. On Saturday morning, the festivities move to the Banwari Heritage Site in San Francique, Siparia from 10 am-1 pm. The Banwari Site is the site of the oldest human fossils in the region, dating human life in Trinidad to almost 7,000 years ago. The site is sacred to the Amerindian peoples of T&T, particularly the Warao People in the South who will be hosting the ceremony.
The festival culminates on Sunday in Matelot, at the point the Matelot River meets the sea by the Matelot Community School. Transport will be provided to both the Banwari and Matelot locations on the day.
Olokun is the Orisa god of the ocean and the theme of this year's Olokun Festival is Retrieving Our Memory, which is apt as Olokun is also custodian of planetary memory. The Olokun Ocean Festival is the ceremony in which man's indispensable link and connectivity to the force of the ocean is celebrated. Olokun is the deity of the deep ocean, marshes and wetlands, and is protector of the African diaspora.
For the last 20 years, the Olokun Festival has been hosted by Egbe Onisin Eledumare, an African spiritual organisation functional in Ile-Iere (the Republic T&T) since 1971. The organisation has consistently been one of the most progressive voices for Orisa and African traditions in T&T, pioneering numerous firsts in the nation as regards Orisa practice, from campaigning for the passage of the Orisa Marriage Act to staging the first Orisa carnival band with a winning Queen of Carnival entrant. The Olokun Festival is one of the major festivals in the Egbe's annual festival calendar.
The Festival is an environmental festival which acknowledges our oceans and seas as sources of food, life-giving water, raw materials, medicine, recreation, transport and communications for millions of the planet's inhabitants.
Many Old World societies recognise the importance of the seas and oceans, and special propitiatory rites were performed each year to encourage the co-operation of the living force called sea or ocean. The Orisa community continues to believe that communion with the ocean is necessary for our survival.
Olokun's colours are white and red but participants can wear any colour. To book transport and for further information, call Oloye Orawale Oranfe (678-7121) or Rubadiri (797-0949) or contact rubadiri@yahoo.com
Maxis will leave for the Banwari Site on Saturday from the western side of City Gate by the lighthouse from 7 am and the contribution is $100. Maxis leave for Matelot on Sunday from the same point at City Gate from 6 am and the contribution is $200. Offerings of fruits, silver coins, dried foods, honey, and other items will be accepted.