Osun Osogbo Shrine Receives $127k Grant for Conservation

By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel

The Busanyin Shrine located in the Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove has received $127,000 from the  United States Embassy in Nigeria for digital documentation and conservation of the site.

This is also to revamp the damages wrecked on the archaeological site throughout the years due to extreme flooding.

The grant was transacted to CyArk, a non-profit organisation in Oakland, California, via the US Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP).

According to the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs Mary Beth Leonard, CyArk and its local partners were awarded a $127,000 grant under the AFCP small grant programme to help document a series of shrines in the sacred grove and provide training to local professionals to build capacity and digital documentation skills and cultural heritage management.

She said this while signing the project’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), adding that her country and Nigeria are in talks on a bilateral agreement to establish restrictions against importing prohibited items of cultural property into the US.

“Today, we’re proud to be launching our 2020 AFCP award to digitally document and conserve the Busanyin shrine located within the Osun Osogbo sacred grove.

“The 3D digital documentation of the shrine is the necessary first step to provide the most accurate record of the current conditions of the site and effectively plan a restoration project that will increase resilience at the site during a natural disaster or extreme weather conditions,” Mrs Leonard explained.

Commenting on the agreement, the Director-General, National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Mr Abba Tijani, noted that this opens an excellent opportunity to train some staff of the commission and carry out more works at the Osun Osogbo Shrine.

According to him, the commission will continue to liaise with relevant stakeholders to protect, conserve and manage national assets.

He said, “The grove is important to many of its devotees both within and outside the country and other stakeholders, hence, the need to keep it in good state of conservation at all times.

“This training programme will not only empower the staff of the commission in 3D documentation of cultural heritage but also assist in conservation works to be carried out in the grove.”

It would be recalled that the NCMM collaborated with CyArk sometime in 2019 to launch a Bootcamp that successfully equipped stakeholders with 3D documentation.