Morufu Bukola Omigbule

Oranfe, Itapa, Orisalase, Obameri, Orisakire and Oodua annual ritual festivals are re-enactment rites which have artistic merits but are yet to be focused by literary scholarship. The over-emphasis on the sacred nature of the selected ritual festivals and the place of prominence accorded Ile-Ife in history has partially lend some out of the selected festivals to religious and historical scholarships. The study undertakes the challenge of determining and appreciating the inherent artistic qualities of the selected festivals as their cultural significance continues to be threatened by the impacts of modernity. The mythic realities which are seen to be represented within the context of myth-ritual theorizing raise historical, religious and ethnographic questions in respect of the way Ile-Ife is often mythically constructed as the spiritual-cum-ancestral home of the Yoruba.