Remembering Chief Susanne Wenger – Àdùnní Olórìṣà…
Susanne Wenger was born in Graz, Austria on 4 July, 1915 to Swiss and Austrian parents. She studied art there and in Vienna before travelling to Paris in 1949, where she met Ulli Beier, a German linguist. When he was offered a position as a phonetician in Ibadan, Nigeria, shortly afterwards, they decided to marry so she could accompany him.
The couple quickly assimilated in Nigeria, he as a teacher and she as an artist, but they moved from Ibadan to the nearby town of Ẹdẹ in 1950 to escape what Wenger called the “artificial university compound”.
When she arrived at Ẹdẹ, she found traditional culture in abeyance, all but destroyed by missionaries who branded it “black magic” or “juju”, a word Mrs Wenger reviles.
She met one of the last priests of the rapidly disappearing, ancestral-based Òrìṣa religion. Ajagẹmọ, a priest of Ọbatala introduced Wenger to the Yoruba world view, language and religion, and both individuals soon developed a special bond. During this period, Wenger experimented with colourful designs influenced by Adirẹ making techniques.
She quickly became engrossed in Ajagẹmọ’s life and rituals, even though at that time she spoke no Yoruba. “Our only intercourse was the language of the trees,” she said later.
She worked hard to revive Yorùbá among Nigerians who had drifted away from it under the influence of western culture and religion. She also made enormous efforts to protect the sacred grove of Ọ̀ṣun, a forest along the banks of the Ọ̀ṣun river just outside Òṣogbo, which she turned into a sculpture garden filled with art made by her and others.
She and Beier mentored a group of local artists that later became the New Sacred Art movement, creating many of the giant sculptural works that beautify the sacred grove.
When Wenger and Beier eventually separated, she remained in Òṣogbo to continue her work and became even more immersed in her training as a priestess.
The turning point for her came when she contracted tuberculosis and there was no doctor to treat her. She was seriously ill and dying from the disease until she was given herbal mixtures by Yorùbá herbalists and in no time, she was cured.
After she recovered, she decided to dedicate her life to the Òrìṣà who saved her from death. And until she died, she never looked back.
In 1959 she married a local drummer, Chief Alarape, and adopted more than a dozen Yorùbá children, including the artist Nike Davies-Okundaye.
As her influence increased, the grove became a focal point for artists and those that celebrated Yorùbá. The festival held to worship Ọ̀ṣun (Ọriṣa of fertility) that takes place at the grove every August continues to attract thousands today.
The grove also became a target for criticism from Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, whose position Wenger always rejected, saying there was little about Christianity and Yorùbá that could not be reconciled.
Wenger was also initiated into the cults of Ọbatala, Sọpọnna, and Ogboni, and was later given the chieftaincy title of Àdùnní Olórìṣà.
“Òrìṣà [a spirit or deity] is merely a name which represents the supernatural forces which are basic expressions of life,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you call it. It is a sacred force that represents the experience of life that informs human beingness.”
In 2005, her efforts to protect the grove were rewarded by UNESCO’s decision to list it as a world heritage site. She was honoured in Nigeria in the same year by being made a Member of the Federal Republic (MFR).
Wenger’s bougainvillea-covered Òṣogbo house became a pilgrimage site to many, despite her insistence that her life was one of devotion to the spirit and not of tourism.
After spending 6 decades in Oṣogbo, Chief Àdùnní Olórìṣà died on 12 January 2009 at the age of 93 in her adopted home of Oṣogbo in Nigeria. She was unique in her absorption into traditional African religion. After her arrival in Africa in 1949.
Her books include:
A Life with the Gods in Their Yoruba Homeland (1983)
The Sacred Groves of Oshogbo (1990)
The Timeless Mind of the Sacred Its New Manifestation in the Osun Groves (1977)
Susanne Wenger: artist and priestess (2009) – co-author with Paola Caboara Luzzato
Yoruba Poetry: An Anthology of Traditional Poems (1970) – co-author with Ulli Beier
African Poetry. An Anthology of Traditional Poems (1966) – co-author with Ulli Beier
(c) YOYỌN ỌLỌBẸ
References:
https://www.theguardian.com/…/26/obituary-suzanne-wenger
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7595841.stm
https://susannewengerfoundation.at/en
