Osafirole Fanikanse Interview
Festival de Baile por la Paz
Using Yoruba Arts to Create One Lineage based on
PEACE, TOLERANCE and RESPECT
Religion divides, by nature. But the arts unify. If you introduce religion first, people will reject it. If you tell people “I’m going to teach you something,” they will put up their defenses. But if you show them art, they will accept it more readily.
“This is something that, it takes a trained eye to see. If you take a look at the costumes, show one costume to someone who knows all the traditions, all the different roads of Yoruba spirituality, they’ll say, Hey, this is Nigeria, this is Cuba, and this is Brazil… Somebody could say, “Hey, this goes against lineage!” No, it’s not. The ultimate lineage is the union. Lineage separates us… When we model something showing respect for all every lineage, it becomes a lineage in itself. Here, we wear our headdress “so-so”. And here, the gele they wear like this. And the oja, they wear here and the agbada, they wear here. So what happens if we use their gele… and honor everybody through excellent dancing? Where the one who uses the gele that certain way will say, This beautiful dance is using the gele in our style, and the other one will say, but hey, they’re using the oja in our style! I think that’s a lineage itself. And I think it’s the best one because it’s called unity and it’s called respect.
And I think that’s the future because remember, religion will always separate man. Religion is beautiful but it will always separate man. So what’s the antidote for this? The antidote for this is, we have to spiritualize our religious practice because spirituality brings us together. Spirituality never separates us. Spirituality itself is pliable. Spirituality brings man together because spirituality is sentiment. Religion is doctrine. If we want to make the alchemy, we have to try – and we want everybody to join in –we have to try to include everybody.
That’s why in the second year, we had candomble with their drums, the atabaque, the … Because my vision was that from the get go. And so, the dress will always show a trace of Cuba, a trace of Brazil and a trace of Nigeria. And the song also. To the knowing ear, they’ll say, Hey, this is Lukumi. This is traditional. And it’s all done very tastefully… We’ve kept the Yoruba tones, just put them into a different rhythmic base. And a potent message… My dream is we have some people from Nigeria sitting over there, some people from Trinidad, some people from Brazil, some people from Cuba and the rest of the world. And the one from Nigeria says, Oh, that’s beautiful! And he’ll sing along the first couple of verses. Then, all of a sudden, the next singer comes along, “Bara Suwayo, mama Kenya…” And everyone will say, we’ll be singing to the same deities! Everybody will be happy and we will have accomplished El Festival por la Paz; peace through music. The reunion of song, creating one lineage; PEACE, TOLERANCE and RESPECT. You can’t argue with that.
Osafirole Fanikanse, Luis Valdes
Oluwo, Egbe Oriwa Ohun Gbogbo
Festival de Baile por la Paz
Using Yoruba Arts to Create One Lineage based on
PEACE, TOLERANCE and RESPECT
Religion divides, by nature. But the arts unify. If you introduce religion first, people will reject it. If you tell people “I’m going to teach you something,” they will put up their defenses. But if you show them art, they will accept it more readily.
“This is something that, it takes a trained eye to see. If you take a look at the costumes, show one costume to someone who knows all the traditions, all the different roads of Yoruba spirituality, they’ll say, Hey, this is Nigeria, this is Cuba, and this is Brazil… Somebody could say, “Hey, this goes against lineage!” No, it’s not. The ultimate lineage is the union. Lineage separates us… When we model something showing respect for all every lineage, it becomes a lineage in itself. Here, we wear our headdress “so-so”. And here, the gele they wear like this. And the oja, they wear here and the agbada, they wear here. So what happens if we use their gele… and honor everybody through excellent dancing? Where the one who uses the gele that certain way will say, This beautiful dance is using the gele in our style, and the other one will say, but hey, they’re using the oja in our style! I think that’s a lineage itself. And I think it’s the best one because it’s called unity and it’s called respect.
And I think that’s the future because remember, religion will always separate man. Religion is beautiful but it will always separate man. So what’s the antidote for this? The antidote for this is, we have to spiritualize our religious practice because spirituality brings us together. Spirituality never separates us. Spirituality itself is pliable. Spirituality brings man together because spirituality is sentiment. Religion is doctrine. If we want to make the alchemy, we have to try – and we want everybody to join in –we have to try to include everybody.
That’s why in the second year, we had candomble with their drums, the atabaque, the … Because my vision was that from the get go. And so, the dress will always show a trace of Cuba, a trace of Brazil and a trace of Nigeria. And the song also. To the knowing ear, they’ll say, Hey, this is Lukumi. This is traditional. And it’s all done very tastefully… We’ve kept the Yoruba tones, just put them into a different rhythmic base. And a potent message… My dream is we have some people from Nigeria sitting over there, some people from Trinidad, some people from Brazil, some people from Cuba and the rest of the world. And the one from Nigeria says, Oh, that’s beautiful! And he’ll sing along the first couple of verses. Then, all of a sudden, the next singer comes along, “Bara Suwayo, mama Kenya…” And everyone will say, we’ll be singing to the same deities! Everybody will be happy and we will have accomplished El Festival por la Paz; peace through music. The reunion of song, creating one lineage; PEACE, TOLERANCE and RESPECT. You can’t argue with that.
Osafirole Fanikanse, Luis Valdes
Oluwo, Egbe Oriwa Ohun Gbogbo
