Motherhood and Infertility as Performance Paradigms of Ọ̀pá Festival

Abstract

Ọ̀pá festival is famous among Ìpinṣà, its surrounding communities and Àkúrẹ́, in the southwest of Nigeria. The festival holds annually in Ìpinṣà to celebrate Èyé Mọ̀é, and by extension, female indigenes of Ìpinṣà, irrespective of age, political affiliations, and social status. Though scholarly works abound on women, yet, there seem to be paucity of research on how the female Deity of Ọ̀pá, proffers amazing solution to infertility and childlessness. The primary aim of Ọ̀pá festival in Ìpinṣà is to resolve infertility among married women. This article identifies the orature of Ọ̀pá festival on infertility and motherhood and critically analyses them, using Acholonu’s motherism and Freud’s Psychoanalysis. The result confirms that infertility is traumatic among the Yorùbá, particularly the Yorùbá women, due to the strong importance attached to motherhood in their society. The methodology involves in-depth interviews with ten purposively selected individuals. These consist of three female Ìpinṣà chiefs, two of Akápinṣa’s wives and five women seeking fertility. There was participant observation of the festival, where audio and visual recordings were made. The paper concludes that the orature of Ọ̀pá festival archives the importance of procreation among the Yorùbá.