THE OSUN OSOGBO FESTIVAL: ITS FUNCTIONS AND AESTHETICS

Akpan and etuk (1990) defines

                       Aesthetics as the science or study of beauty.

Aesthetics, according to my own view is the perception of beauty. It is the appreciation of the beauty as well as the ugly in all parts of life including the arts. It comprises of what is good a and bad in any work of arts. The aesthetics in the Osun Osogbo festival includes: Drums, Dance, Music's, Costumes, Languages, Audience and so on

These makes the festival more appreciated by the people and more colourful. The festival immense benefits to the tourist sector of Nigeria economy. The enables the community to sell  its culture to tourist among others coming from within and all outside the country.

          The Osun grove has been lifted as a world heritage site by UNESCO to accept Osun grove into the lists of cultural and natural properties which is going to be a great source of foreign revenue to the Nigeria government.

          All these have inspire me in studying the Osun Osogbo festival and because the festival has immense societal benefits which include improved environmental sanitation, as every where is kept clean during the period of the festival as Osun is generally reffered to as god of purity.

          Osun Osogbo festival also remains the strongest unifying factor in Osogbo land, irrespective of the different social, economic, and religious, political conviction of the people as they all comes together annually to celebrates.

1.2              PURPOSE OF STUDY.

Osun Osogbo festival is the most important and significant components culture of Osogbo. The major purpose of this study us to analyse the aesthetics and functions in the Osun Osogbo festival and to look at the way the people of osogbo have been celebrating these  festival in the past years and recent years, to look at the difference between the past years  and recents celebrations. These work will also look at the way the people of Osogbo react to this festival despites the numerous of Africans that identify themselves as either Christianity or Islam, and ancients beliefs still have its plaxe in their lives. It will also look at the roles these festival performs among the people of osogbo.

1.3                 SCOPE OF STUDY.

This work is on the Osun Osogbo festival and it will limit itselt to bringing out the aesthetics, functions and importance of the Osun Osogbo festival in terms of its performances. These work begins with the history of the Osun Osogbo festival with the way the festival is being performed from the day one to the twelveth day which is the end of the festival, and the findings about the festival.

1.4                 METHODOLOGY.

The research methodology of this work is based on analysis of data and interviews which are gathered and showing relevant places of pictures taken during the festival of relevant places and people.

The data gathered and analysed which includes different people, both men and woman, old and young, who come for the festival and participates in the Osun festival whole heartedly.

1.5              JUSTIFICATION.

The purpose of this study is to justify the assertion that indeed, the Osun Osogbo festival is full of aesthetics elements of dance, drums, musics, costumes, and so on, this study is to correct the image created by some Eurocentric scholars and Europeans that Africa has either history nor culture. The Eurocentric scholars belief that European culture is superior to African culture, and that African literature is primitive and as such noting can come out of African oral literature