Odunde
Celebrates 27th Year
One of America's Largest Street
Festivals
By Junious Ricardo Stanton
 |
For the past twenty-seven years each
year on the second Sunday in June, literally hundreds of
thousands of people mostly of African descent ,come to
Philly for the Odunde Festival celebration.
Hundreds of devotees of Ifa,
Santeria, Candomble, Lukumi, Voodan or other traditional
African cultural/religious systems converge on South
Street, Grays Ferry Avenue, and the neighboring streets
to jam, enjoy and revel in the joy of being with black
folks. Philadelphia's Odunde Festival is one
of the oldest African American street festivals in the
country. (Odunde is a Yoruba word that means "Happy
New Year" in the Yoruba language of Nigeria. ) The
first festival was held in 1975 and it was spearheaded
by a strong willed Sistah named Lois Fernandez, a
devotee of the Yoruba cultural tradition. She had visited Africa and witnessed
the festivals celebrating the various Orishas in several
towns and villages that she visited while in Nigeria and
Yoruba land. She was most impressed by the festival of
Oshun and being a devotee of Ifa she decided to
replicate the celebration in her home town of
Philadelphia. |
A South Philadelphia
resident, Fernandez went about planning for the festival but had
to overcome the doubters, nay-sayers and bureaucratic red tape
to make the festival happen. She was implacable and resolute in
her determination to actualize the festival.
Since the festival was in
celebration of the feminine spirit of Oshun (the energy of the
river), Fernandez held the first festival close to the Schulkyll
River just across the South Street Bridge.
 |
The Odunde Festival features a
lively procession of drummers and chanters from 23rd and
Grays Ferry Avenue near South Street to the river and
back. Over time the festival has grown to the point it
attracts an estimated two hundred thousand people.
The festival flourishes despite
the gentrification of what was an black community
southeast of the South Street bridge.This 27th year was
no different.
In a matter of minutes as my wife and I
strolled down Grays Ferry Avenue to South Street and
then down South Street greeting friends and looking at
the vendors, the streets went from being crowded to
jammed packed. |
 |
 |
At one point we had to make a detour
off South Street and cut through a side street just to
get back to Grays Ferry Avenue. The streets were
literally jammed with people.
Odunde is a truly grass roots effort.
With a few exceptions over the years there are no major
corporate sponsors to pay the bills. Fernandez' initial
success with the festival and its growth has created
additional problems other than financial. As the crowds swelled so
have complaints by white settlers who are buying the properties
in the surrounding neighborhood that has become increasingly
gentrified. In 1984 whites signed a petition and went to City
Hall to halt the festival. |
|
Ed Rendell who was the mayor at the
time asked Fernandez to take the festival to Penn's
Landing on the Delaware River. The mayor even offered to
subsidize the festival if she would move it from the
residential area to Penn's Landing. Fernandez refused,
stood her ground and the black community rallied in
support of both her and Odunde.
The neighbors still complain. The
City of Philadelphia spends extra money on police
overtime for traffic and crowd control, even though the
crowds are always mannerly and well behaved.
But the City also realizes
millions of dollars in revenues from vendors fees and the ripple
effect of hundreds of thousands of people spending money on
food, candies, soft drinks, artifacts, books, gifts, toys and
personal products, not to mention transportation, restaurant and
hotel fees from out-of-towners who come religiously every year. |
 |
 |
If you've never experienced the
Odunde Festival, it's like a one-day Caribbean Island
Carnival or a New Orleans Mardi Gras, only a bit more
serious and spiritual. There is the traditional procession
to the river to offer fruit, flowers, honey, and coins
to Oshun and ask her blessings and the revelry of the
procession/return from the river.
There are sound stages
strategically located on South Street and Grays Ferry
Avenue for entertainment. Vendors line the side walks
offering a myriad of wares and products.
Many participants are decked out in a
great variety of colorful African garb, though not a
requirement.The devotees of Ifa,
Santeria, and Voodun usually wear white, but there is a virtual
spectrum of colors and shades both in textile and skin tone. The
smell of a smorgasbord of foods fills the air along with the
sounds of all types of music. |
|
Odunde signals the beginning of the
Summer festival season in Philadelphia. It is a giant
family reunion, a chance to see and greet old friends
especially if you were/are part of the black is
beautiful, black power/black consciousness movement. To
see an African-based festival grow like this over the
years has been truly phenomenal especially considering
all the obstacles Mrs. Fernandez and her family have had
to overcome.
All kinds of folks converge on that
triangle of streets to just enjoy being in the mix. The
popular radio stations are on the set doing remote
broadcasts which helps to hype the crowd as well as
attract the less racially conscious who come because
Odunde is a happening, a place to see and be seen. Being at Odunde
is like a mystical baptism. The festival there immerses
you in a vibratory sea of blackness. You get dipped into
a positive spirit of being African and come up revived,
energized, and feeling good. |
 |
Because of this African-derived
spirituality of generosity and of giving offerings of
thanks and gratitude and because of its infectiousness
and influence, Odunde has survived and flourished for
twenty-seven years, despite the forces arrayed against
it and its founder. What would happen if Africans all
over the world decided to replicate the spirit of
Philly's Odunde Festival?
June 2003
* * *
* *
* *
* * *
|
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
|
 |
* *
* * *
 |
Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* *
* * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
update 29 July 2008
|
