Oyotunji, African village in SC

This week my partner and I passed through the gates and entered the village of Oyotunji, capitol of the Yoruba people of the Western Hemisphere. Oyotunji means town of return and consists of fourteen acres near Sheldon in Beaufort County, South Carolina. It is an African village welcoming visitors with this sign: “You are now leaving the United States”. We learned that the villagers of Oyotunji practice Yoruba customs and traditions in their rules and laws that govern marriage, farming, and all of life. In the middle of the forest, we were led through a maze of huts, dirt roads and concrete buildings, through structures used for school or worship, and past altars of many deities.

From this post, the Oba (King) Adegbolu Adefunmi II reigns over all Yorubas in the Western Hemisphere. He succeeded his father who left Harlem to found Oyotunji in 1970. The current king was interested in doing film and creating music but the divination that came through at his birth said he was to be Oba, and he has stated that considers it his duty to fulfill the divination.

At various times there were 250 people living in the village, though today a much smaller number of families has permanent residence. Our guide, Ono Wale Olutumbi, told us that here, Children grow up where they are blessed. Over the more than four decades since its founding, thousands of people have been initiated into the Yoruba culture and have become custodians of that culture, dedicated to the ancestors and spirits of Africa. Annual festivals honor the deities and also bring in tourist income. Guest lodges, meals and onsite camping is available. http://www.oyotunji.org/

For further reading on Yoruba religion particularly as related to women, see Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Àjé in Africana Literature (Blacks in the Diaspora) by Teresa N. Washington, and also,