Shrine at the Osun Grove, Oshogbo, Nigeria

"In the past all Yoruba towns had their sacred groves, in which the most important rituals and sacrifices were carried out. In 1950, the Osun Grove in Oshogbo had already been decimated by the expanding town. In the early 1960s, the main shrine by the river was collapsing, and the community of worshippers had become so small that they could not raise the money to pay for the labor to repair it. Susanne Wenger employed two bricklayers called Oyewale and Lani, who repaired the shrine and then re-erected the wall that was shielding the inner sanctuary of the forest from casual visitors. Only gradually did some artistic work appear, when Oyewale and Lani spontaneously added some relief figures to the wall. As a next step, Susanne Wenger now proceeded to re-erect the shrine at Idi baba -a site on Ibokun Road, where the Osun festival ends with a final sacrifice. From here she moved back into the grove itself and for nearly a quarter of a century she erected shrines and giant sculptures on ancient sites where the original sacred buildings had long collapsed and been turned back to earth." [Wole Ogundele, Olu Obafemi, Femi Abodunrin, 2001: Character is beauty; Redefining Yoruba Culture and Identity. Africa World Press]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from March 17, 1970 to July 17, 1970.