08/09/2025
They say tradition must be preserved. But since when did ‘preservation’ mean handing sacred duties to a 9-year-old? 🤦🏽♂️
So for this year’s Osun- Osogbo festival, the sacred calabash, "igba"; the one with the sacrifices meant to appease the gods for a good year, will be carried by… a 9-year-old virgin. Yes, you heard me right.
Nine. Years. Old.
Traditionally, it’s always been teenage girls or women in their early twenties, virgins, who take on this role. But somehow, in 2025, we’ve decided to skip all of that and hand the responsibility, and the symbolism, to a child who’s not even close to puberty, let alone initiation.
And I have to ask;
📍. Are there no longer teenage virgins in Osogbo?
📍. No women in their twenties who can still carry this tradition?
📍. Or have we just collectively decided that parading a child is more convenient?
This isn’t just ironic, it’s troubling.
It’s a quiet slap to the face of the adults in that community.
It’s an unspoken admission that we’ve failed somewhere, and now we’re dressing it up as ‘culture.’
At what point does this become less about heritage and more about child labor with beads and drums?
Because if today it’s 9 years old, what happens tomorrow?
Will we start with toddlers?
Newborns?
The way society is going, instead of fixing the rot, we’re just adjusting the tradition to fit the decay.
What are we really doing sef?
?
