Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Ondo
The coming to Osogbo, capital of Osun State, of the late Austrian artist and sculptural icon, Susanne Wenger, also know as Adunni Olorisa, in the 1950s was a “cultural” blessing, particularly to the Yoruba nation. One of such was the enlistment of her house as a national monument by the National Museums and Monuments (NMM). The house has become a tourist centre; a meeting point for artistes.
The house was given to her by the then Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Moses Adenle. It is located on Ibokun Road, Oke Baale, Osogbo, and today a beehive of activities for traditionalists and tourists, including students seeking knowledge about Yoruba culture, arts and sculptures. The house was said to be the best in Osogbo at the time.
She decorated and filled the house with moulded sculptures and other artistic masterpieces. This made the NMM to name National Monument Centre. Today, no fewer than 100 people including artistes and tourists visit the house daily. Also, she did many other sculptural works at the Osun groove. Her art works and sculptures beautify the Osun shrine and aided its enlistment as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2005.
Since her death in 2008, the house has not been deserted, even though she had no biological child to watch over the house. Some of her adopted children have taken it upon themselves to take visitors round the house and show them the sculptures she moulded in and outside the town, which are now preserved by the NMM.
Adunni Olorisa as she was fondly called adopted Yoruba deity, (Osun Osogbo) as her religion. At the initial stage of her sojourn in Nigeria, she was on a mission in search of knowledge about the Yoruba ways of worshiping gods, particularly the Osun Osogbo which along the line she eventually became its chief priestess, the position she held until her death.
Most of her contemporaries who arrived Nigeria about the same time with her are Christian missionaries. They arrived with the Holy Bible on one hand and western education on the other hand; preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and converting the residents from their traditional idol worshiping to Christianity.
Susanne Wenger after spending some years in Osogbo divorced her husband, Ullier Bier, a Professor of History, who accompanied her to the town. She later got married to a local drummer in Osogbo who was not literate in western education. She also had 17 children none of which was her biological child but adopted all of them in Osogbo a town she adopted as hers. She was buried at the Osun groove as a mark of honour.
Ironically, the goddess of Osun Osogbo which is believed to be the source of giving children to many women and which indeed gave many Nigerian and foreign women children but could not give Susanne Wenger a child of her own throughout the 54 years that she devoted her life, strength and time to worship.
From the entrance of the shrine to the inner groove, the art works of Susanne could be easily seen and adored by worshipers of Osun and traditionalists who besiege the shrine yearly for the annual Osun Osogbo festival. The people of Osun State, nay Nigeria, will not forget in a hurry her contributions to the enlistment of the Osun groove as one of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized World Heritage Sites in 2005. It was this achievement that contributed to the establishment of Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding in Osogbo.
According to one of the Osun devotees and a close associate of the late art collector, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon, Oba Adenle named Wenger “Iwinfunmi Adunni Olorisa” considering her dedication to Osun and other traditional festivals in the town. Also, her interest in Yoruba culture, Elebuibon said encouraged the Ataoja to install her Chief Priestess of Osun shrine, a position, which made her the chief custodian of the shrine.
The foremost Ifa priest recalled that when Wenger arrived Osogbo in the 50s, her basic intention was to research into the mythology of Osun River and she eventually got convinced about the powers of the river, which included its ability to solve every problem of life, especially barrenness.
The research conducted by Wenger, Elebuibon said, included the living fish that periodically came out of the water during the Osun festival. Her research brought other foreigners from Germany and Australia to Osogbo who conducted similar research. She reportedly used her influence to promote the Osun Osogbo festival to the outside world and made it an international festival to the extent that the festival was being celebrated in France, Germany and Australia among other nations of the world.
Elebuibon, Professor of Ifa Mythology, said: “The contributions of Adunni Olorisa to the Osun groove would remain indelible in the minds of its worshipers as she devoted the better part of her life and her resources to beautify the shrine. She carved various artistic works to beautify the entire Osun shrine and made it to a standard that is delightful to all foreign and local worshipers.”
He informed that a committee known as Sacred Arts Committee has been set up to take care of the art works of the late Susanne Wenger, stressing that this was done to ensure proper preservation of all her works and to fulfil part of her wishes of preserving her art works after she might have died.
Wenger could be said to have achieved all her aims and desires following the enlistment of Osun groove as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, being her major goal in life for which she received a national honour from the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua two weeks before her death. Although she was unable to receive the award personally due to her fragile and falling health, another prominent artist in Osogbo, Chief Jimoh Buraimoh, received the award on her behalf.
An official of the NMM, Osogbo, Mr Olawale Busari, said the Federal Government takes care of Wegner’s house, being national monument, adding that officials of the commission pay timely visit to the house. He said tourists from both within and outside the country visit the house from time to time, while the adopted children of the late artist and some traditionalists live inside the house.