Ooni Inaugurates National Orisa Day In Brazil

Oketola

THE Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, has officially presented a Cer ficate of Yoruba Territory to Quilombola territory in Brazil, making the city the first outside Africa to receive the tle.

Ogunwusi, while addressing the Brazil’s Federal House of Assembly on Tuesday, officially inaugurated the first-ever Na onal Orisa Day in the South American country.

A statement from Ooni’s Media Aide, Otunba Moses Olafare, said Ogunwusi addressed the Brazilian Parliament on the special session for Isese Prac oners marking the na onal day for Orisa religion in Brazil.

Olafare said the royal visit was undertook to bridge the gap between the Yoruba race and the rest of the world through cultural integra on and globalising Yoruba culture in the diaspora.

According to him, Ooni and his entourage from Nigeria arrived in the Brazilian city of Bahia on Sunday and met with President Lula da Silva in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, on Monday.

The monarch delivered the tle in the Quingoma community, in Lauro de Freitas, in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador.

Residents of Quilombola celebrated the delivery of the tle of Yoruba territory which would further strengthen and preserve the Yoruba history, culture and language in the community.

The Quilombola was recognised for having received and welcomed Yoruba people who were enslaved and forcibly removed from their base in Nigeria during the era of the slave trade in Africa.

“The recogni on of

Quilombola as Yoruba territory is another step in the fight for respect for African history; for the history of the Quilombola