- Safiu Kehinde
A United Kingdom-based Nigerian sculptor, Yusuf Dongo, has designed a life sized horse dedicated to the 2025 edition of the Ojude Oba festival.
The sculpture, as captured in a post shared on Facebook ahead of the festival on Sunday, was made of colourful metal scraps ranging from steel bowls to automobile gear wheel and chain.
Also emblazoned on the art work, according to Dongo, were images of former Baloguns of Ijebuland as well as the image of the current Awujale, Oba Sikiru Adetona.
“This sculpture came to my mind to do something interesting, over life sized horse which I’m able to express myself more.
“On this sculpture, we have the burst of Awujale and the past Baloguns.” He said.
While explaining the piece which he said transcends beyond the horse, Dongo cited the absence of a specific icon to represent the Ojude Oba festival as his source inspiration.
He held that the festival need an object to represent it just like the Agemo statue and Obanta masquerade.
“This work generally is not about the horse. The horse is just a symbol of royalty and dignity. What inspires me to do this project is that if you look at Ijebu-Ode properly, we don’t really have an icon that actually represents the Ojude Oba festival.
“We have statue of Agemo at the roundabout. We also have the status of Obanta masquerade back in the days. But this can also be an icon that represents Ijebu as a whole and also represents the Ojude Oba.” The sculptor said.
According Dango, people can learn Ijebu history from the sculpture as contained in its body.
“On this work, a lot of people can learn history, the Ijebu history, the pioneer of Ojude Oba. History of different families like Shoye, Shote, Alatise, Odunuga family.” He added.