Oyo Govt. Throws Weight behind Iyemoja Festival

By Iyabo Adebisi

Oyo State Government has pledged its full support for the annual celebration of the Iyemoja Festival in Ibadan, saying it will ensure it attracts the attention of UNESCO.

The Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun gave the assurance during the celebration of this year’s Iyemoja Festival at the River Bank of Popoyemoja in Ibadan.

He explained that the government threw its weight behind the festival in order to promote and preserve the cultural heritage, as well as remember the forebears in the state.

The Commissioner promised that, to make the approval of UNESCO a reality, the next Yemoja Festival would be well packaged to attract a mammoth crowd to grace the occasion. 

Earlier,the Yeyelorisa of the Festival, Omitonade  Egbelade said that the festival is an avenue for every son and daughter of Yemoja, both at home and in the diaspora to converge and celebrate their past heroes and also plan on ways to move the belief forward.

The highpoint of the Festival was the appeasement to Iyemoja deity by Baale Iyemoja Omikunmi Egbelade, who took the propitiation and dived into the river, a  symbolic representation of the sacrificial rites.