Ṣàwárí

The river orisa of Osogbo, the seventeenth of the orisa sent to earth and the one whose exclusion made the work fail, the founding covenant of a town, and the largest surviving Yoruba festival.

An examination of female sacerdotal leadership, institutional authority, theological debates on gender, and the historical dispute surrounding the initiation of female Ifá diviners.

An exhaustive scholarly account of the annual Ọ̀ṣun-Òṣogbo festival, its foundational origin traditions, liturgical stages, ritual offices, conservation challenges, and scholarly debates.