The òrìşà is like the many aspects in our unconscious: suffering, aggression, creativity, purity, love, wisdom… One can choose any of these roads towards the invisible, and make it alive inside oneself. – Susanne Wenger (1915-2009)

The Òşun Sacred Grove and Forest might have been lost to the world if it were not for the dedication of an Austrian artist, Susanne Wenger, born July 4, 1915, and who came to Osogbo, Nigeria in 1960. She studied the Yoruba language, culture, and religion dedicating her life’s work to the restoration and protection of the shrines and grove.

To celebrate Susanne Wenger’s art, to honor her life’s work of perseverance in protection of Yoruba heritage, from my collection of Nigeria Magazine, I offer this gift.

Gods and Myths in Susanne Wenger’s Art

The Example of Batik Cloth

by Stanley P. Bohrer and Susanne Wenger Alarape

Nigeria Magazine, 1976, Issue 120.

(click on page to enlarge)

Article in Obelisque Magazine, Osun Osogbo Grove, January 2015: https://nomad4now.com/articles/osun-osogbo-grove/

Go to post: Osun Sacred Grove and Forest https://nomad4now.com/2014/02/25/osun-sacred-grove-and-forest/

For more information go to:

http://www.susannewengerfoundation.at

http://www.susannewenger-aot.org

UNESCO World Heritage Site; Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove

(Music in clip by Orin Orisa. Adedayo Ologundudu, Yoruba traditional songs of praises for Orisa: Osun Yoruba Spirit of Rivers.)

All Photographs and text are under international copyright laws. No re-use without the written permission of Lesley Lababidi 2023.