Michelle Loubon

A steep path leads to Dhein's Bay, a much sought-af­ter bathing lo­cale in Care­nage. Feel­ing the sun's warmth, wor­ship­pers from the Egbe On­isin Ele­du­mare Church, Pe­tit Val­ley, made the 8 am trek for the Olokun Fes­ti­val, yes­ter­day. Two chil­dren were al­ready en­joy­ing the feel of the cool wa­ter. Sit­ting in the shade of an al­mond tree, a group of women chat­ted. A few min­utes lat­er, a maxi taxi pulled up. Decked in flow­ing red gar­ments, an­oth­er group of women dis­em­barked, greet­ing fel­low wor­ship­pers.

Minia­ture djimbe goat skin drums were stacked to­geth­er. Even­tu­al­ly, they would pound out a sus­tained rhythm on the heart of Olukun. Devo­tee Omi Dotun (Wa­ter) ex­plained the sig­nil­f­i­cance of wor­ship­ping and pay­ing homage to the ocean. He said: "It is about pay­ing homage to Olukun. We have to pay trib­ute to the sea. Prayers will be re­cit­ed. We will be per­form­ing rit­u­als on the beach." Chim­ing in, an­oth­er gen­tle­man Egbe Os­in Alum­du­mare said a tray laden with fruit and veg­eta­bles was of­fered to mighty Olukun. He added: "We will be putting corn, yams and pro­vi­sions in a tray and bear­ing gifts to the ocean. Olukun is found in the depths of the ocean."

About Olukun

Olokun is wor­shipped in both male and fe­male per­son­i­fi­ca­tions, de­pend­ing on the West African re­gion. Olokun is per­son­i­fied in pa­tience, en­durance, ob­ser­va­tion, wis­dom, his­to­ry and fu­ture vi­sions. Olokun is the pa­tron saint of Africans who were car­ried away dur­ing the Maafa, or the Trans-At­lantic Slave Trade. Olokun sig­ni­fies un­fath­omable wis­dom. That is, the in­stinct that there is some­thing worth know­ing, per­haps more than can ever be learned, es­pe­cial­ly the spir­i­tu­al sci­ences that ex­plain birth, life, death and af­ter­life.

Olokun al­so gov­erns ma­te­r­i­al wealth, psy­chic abil­i­ties, dream­ing, med­i­ta­tion, men­tal health and wa­ter-based heal­ing. Olokun is one of many Orisa known to help women that de­sire chil­dren. Peo­ple who want to main­tain pow­er or de­sire po­lit­i­cal as­cen­sion al­so wor­ship Olokun.