Soyinka also urged the monarch to make “restitution whichever way you can for this grievous insult to our race”.
Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has urged the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari to peace with a traditional religion priestess, Yeye Ajesikemi Olokun Omolara Olatunji, who was threatened not to hold Isese festival in Ilorin.
Soyinka also urged the monarch to make “restitution whichever way you can for this grievous insult to our race”.
The Muslim monarch had defended an Islamic group that threatened and warned Omolara to cancel a planned festival in the city because it was considered to be idolatry.
In a video released online, the priestess said she was threatened and warned not to hold any Isese festival in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
Omolara bemoaned the unfortunate situation and disclosed that her life was in danger.
Meanwhile, the Osun devotee had reportedly released fliers announcing a three-day traditional event aimed at celebrating certain Yoruba deities.
But members of a Muslim group, Majlisu Shabab li Ulamahu Society went to her house to warn her to desist from holding the planned Isese festival.
On Sunday, Mallam Abdulazeez Arowona, the spokesman for the Emir of Ilorin, said that the monarch and the palace were in support of the Islamic group.
Arowona said the monarch had made a public declaration against such events, which he described as ‘idolatry’.
He added that Muslims in the city would oppose the Isese festival.
However, Soyinka, the Akintalun of Egba, Giiwa of Ijebu-Remo and Akogun of Isara, in an open letter written to the Emir on Thursday, described his action as an affront to his sense of racial being, adding that it also applies to millions beyond Nigeria and Africa, stretching into the Americas and the Caribbean.
The letter titled ‘ISESE FESTIVAL: An Open Letter to Sulu Gambari, ’reads in part, “This continent has endured centuries of disdain and despoilation at the hands of alien religions – Christianity and Islam at the forefront.
“Both religions have been sanctimoniously deployed as justification for unspeakable atrocities, for the dehumanization of the black race. Do I need to teach you your own history, or is it that you prefer to forget?
“To encounter, in this century, a convert to alien spiritual dogma, appropriating the cloak of piety to impede the observation of our antecedent spirituality is not just racial treachery but an assault on civilized conduct as a universal aspiration of humanity, where every discovery, every new encounter ushers in new propositions of enlightenment. “Humanity builds on the past, preserving alternatives of world views, not destroying that past which, in any case, is indestructible.
“Your conduct is an affront to my sense of racial being, and that holds true for millions beyond these national and continental borders, stretching into the Americas and the Caribbean.
“There you will still encounter ISELE and allied spiritualities. There, ISELE still exerts its hold on the human spirit. Visit Brazil, go to Columbia, explore Cuba, and be humbled by the tenacity of this spirituality among the descendants of black humanity.
“Even the sturdiest of thrones crumble. Long after you and I are gone, generations will continue to endure the effects of present anomalies, pretensions, hypocrisies, will continue to harvest the bitter fruits of the seeds of discord being sown by their forbears. I therefore urge you to rein in those agents of division, of triumphalist intolerance, such as the Majlisu Shabab Ulamahu Society.
“There is a thin line between Power and Piety. Call Yeye Ajasikemi OIokun Omolara to your side, make peace with her and make restitution whichever way you can for this grievous insult to our race.
“We know the history of Ilorin and the trajectory of your dynasty – but these are not the issues. The issue is peaceful cohabitation, respect for other world views, their celebrations, their values and humanity. The issue is the acceptance of the multiple facets of human enlightenment.
“The greatest avatars that the world has known were not without human frailties, flaws, and errors of understanding. You are NOT Omniscient. And you are not Omnipotent.”