OSUN SACRED FOREST

The one you came for, and who can't disappoint you! First of all for the great breath of fresh air and the deep calm it offers to restless city dwellers and those who drink mufflers. Then, for the initiatory journey along the river and the hundred-year-old trees, which takes a parade of hallucinogenic sculptures suitable for meditating on the meaning of life. Last but not least, if you still needed a reason - hadn't we advised you to leave it at the gates of Osogbo? - to better understand the Yoruba culture and one of its major goddesses, Osun

The forest, which extends over a relatively small area of a few hectares (more than 75 hectares are protected today), is nevertheless very dense, hosting many plants with medicinal properties and some trees whose trunks have a striking diameter. Declared a national monument by the Nigerian government in 1965, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005. Its recent renovation (2014) is due to the Austrian Embassy and the activism of Robin Campbell, a Canadian woman based in Nigeria and passionate about Nigerian heritage and culture, who heads the well-known Nigerian Field Society

The forest was discovered more than 600 years ago by those who founded the Osogbo settlement. The myth teaches us that the latter would have met the goddess Osun by the river, who had established her kingdom there and whom you will see represented on many works in the form of a mermaid. All the sculptures, temples and sanctuaries date from the 1950s, works by Susanne Wenger and her School, which were originally made of banco and clay, before being frozen in stone to protect them from the ravages of time

Evocative shapes, globular eyes, twins' faces, convoluted arches, winding arms or curves sculpted in stone and wood, all in a formidable theatre of greenery and nature: the walk is inspiring. Along the river of medicinal virtues, a temple is guarded by devotees, who will show you around for a small fee. As you walk down the banks of the famous river, look for hotels where sugar cane, popcorn and candy are offered to the spirits of the deceased

The stream from which the intertwined roots of biscornus trees draw flows clear water, which forms an elbow where a statue of the goddess Osun stands, welcoming you with open arms. It is the site of the August Festival. On the small puddled statue of Esu, a devotee of the goddess Osun, many bloody feathers bear witness to weekly, even daily ritual sacrifices

A little further on, a suspension bridge from the 1940s, on which time also seems to have stopped, along this mystical river and its majestic trees. A second part of the forest is home to giant statues more than 10 metres high, including Yamoko, the three-armed goddess who walks and flies, as well as the god Epidemic, like a protean hydra imploring the sky. Further on, a market and a palace, yet another monumental and phantasmagorical structure.