The Igogo (Òdún Igogo) festival is one of Owo’s most distinctive annual celebrations. Observed in Owo town, Ondo State, southwestern Nigeria, it is traditionally held in September and commonly described as lasting about seventeen days. The festival commemorates Queen Oronsen, a central figure in Owo oral history and Yoruba cosmology, whose legend explains many taboos and rites observed during the festivities. The story of Oronsen and the annual covenant made between the people of Owo and her spirit structures both the ritual calendar and community identity in Owo.
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Myth, taboo, and the covenant: Queen Oronsen and Olowo Rerengejen
In the oral records of Owo, Oronsen is the wife of Olowo Rerengejen. She is characterised as a supernatural woman, an orisha-like presence associated with fertility and prosperity. According to tradition, certain activities were forbidden in her presence: grinding okra, pouring water into the palace courtyard, and unloading firewood after returning from the farm are commonly listed taboos. When co-wives breached these prohibitions, Oronsen left the palace and retired to the nearby sacred grove often called Igbo-Oluwa (or Igbo-Laja in some accounts). Before she departed, the story continues, Oronsen left a token, a head-tie (oja) at Ugbo Laja that was returned to the king. She vowed not to return to the palace but promised blessings for Owo so long as her memory was honoured annually and her taboos were observed. That pledge is the covenant that the Igogo festival ritually renews each year.
Ritual structure and roles
Igogo opens with the Upeli procession, led by the Iloro chiefs under their head, the Akowa of Iloro. The Upeli phase, often described as lasting some twelve days, involves visits to shrines and sacred groves and comprises named stages recorded in oral tradition and festival descriptions (Utegi, Ugbabo, Uyanna, Ugbate among them). The Iloro party, traditionally characterised by bare-chested male dancers known as the Ighares or Iloro men, carries buffalo horns and other ritual paraphernalia; the horns are struck to produce a penetrating metallic sound as the procession moves through the town, visiting ritual sites and households. During these ceremonies, animals that cross the procession are ritually appropriated as food for celebratory feasts.
Sound, dress, and symbolic inversion
A striking feature of Igogo is the inversion of ordinary courtly dress. The Olowo and senior chiefs adopt feminine dress, coral beads, flowing beaded gowns, and plaited hair as gestures of respect to Oronsen. At the same time, the use of drums and the firing of guns are proscribed during the festival; metallic gongs (agogo) and iron instruments create the festival’s distinctive clanging sound. Men remove caps and women avoid tying headscarves close to the monarch, measures rooted in the taboos associated with Oronsen and observed as acts of ritual propriety.
Archaeology and long memory
Systematic excavations in the Igbo-Laja area and nearby quarters were undertaken in the late 1960s and early 1970s by Ekpo Eyo and later researchers, revealing terracotta and other sculptural objects. These finds have been stylistically compared with Ife and Benin traditions and have been dated by scholars to roughly the 15th century. Such material evidence demonstrates that Owo was a significant artistic and ritual centre for many centuries and confirms the antiquity of ritual activity in locales tied to Oronsen’s story. It is important to stress, however, that archaeology supports the deep antiquity of ritual and art at Owo sites; it cannot, on its own, identify mythic persons. Assigning terracotta figures to Oronsen herself is interpretive rather than archaeologically proven.
Survival, adaptation, and public culture
During the colonial and missionary periods, many indigenous institutions faced pressure, yet Igogo remained resilient. Mid-20th-century press and ethnographic notes record adaptations a reduction in public drumming being replaced by metal-struck sounds, for example, rather than wholesale abandonment. In recent decades, the festival has incorporated public cultural displays, exhibitions, and tourism-oriented activities alongside core ritual observance. The contemporary Olowo (Oba Ajibade Gbadegesin Ogunoye III) continues to preside over the rites, maintaining the ritual prohibitions and formal components of the Upeli while also opening the festival to wider civic participation.
Economic and social dimensions
Beyond its religious meaning, Igogo is a major cultural and economic event for Owo: artisans produce ceremonial attire, beads, and carved objects; local commerce and hospitality see heightened activity; and returning community members use the festival as a time for reunions and reaffirmation of lineage ties. Such social and economic dynamics are typical of many long-running festivals that combine sacred commemoration with social renewal.
Interpretive cautions
Many details of the Igogo festival are preserved through oral history, and oral narratives are rightly central to the Owo people’s sense of the festival. Where numeric ages or specific identifications (for example, claiming a terracotta is a portrait of Oronsen) appear in some modern retellings, they should be treated with caution: oral tradition and archaeological evidence complement each other but are distinct sources of knowledge. A careful approach allows us to respect the living tradition while distinguishing what is archaeologically demonstrated from what is mythic memory
Author’s note
Igogo remains an emblem of Owo’s ritual and communal life, a performance of memory, covenant, and social order that ties present-day Owo to a long, multilayered past. Its mixture of taboo, costume, metallic sound, and processionally enacted obligations renders it one of the most evocative festival traditions within the Yoruba cultural sphere.
References
Guardian (Nigeria), “Interrogating the Cultural Significance of Owo Object” — coverage of Ekpo Eyo’s excavations and the dating of Igbo-Laja terracottas.
Scholarly/archaeological discussion: Stylistic Analysis of Igbo-Laja Terracotta Sculptures (Ekpo Eyo and subsequent studies).
Festival descriptions and contemporary reporting: Living in Nigeria / The Nation / other festival coverage summarising customs and modern observance
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