Susanne Wenger: white priestess from the Sacred Groves of Osogbo, Nigeria

By Anna Funke

Susanne Wenger also known as Adunni Olurisa (1915-2009) was an Austrian artist who resided in Nigeria. Her main focus was the Yoruba culture and she was successful in building an artist cooperative in Osogbo.

Born in Graz, Austria, she studied art before travelling to Paris in 1949, where she met Ulli Beier, a German linguist. When he was offered a position as a phonetician in Ibadan, Nigeria, shortly afterwards, they decided to marry so she could accompany him.

The couple quickly assimilated in Nigeria, he as a teacher and she as an artist, but they moved from Ibadan to the nearby town of Ede in 1950 to escape what Wenger called the “artificial university compound”. In Ede, she met one of the last priests of the rapidly disappearing, ancestral-based Olorisha religion. She quickly became engrossed in his life and rituals, even though at that time she spoke no Yoruba. “Our only intercourse was the language of the trees,” she said later.

During this period, she and Beier mentored a group of local artists that later became the New Sacred Art movement, creating many of the giant sculptural works that beautify the sacred grove.

When Wenger and Beier eventually separated, she remained in Osogbo to continue her work and became even more immersed in her training as a priestess. In 1959 she married a local drummer, Chief Alarape, and adopted more than a dozen Yoruba children.

As her influence increased, the grove became a focal point for artists and those that celebrated Yoruba. The festival held to worship the goddess Osun that takes place at the grove every August continues to attract thousands today. But it also became a target for criticism from Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, whose position Wenger always rejected, saying there was little about Christianity and Yoruba that could not be reconciled. “Orisa [a spirit or deity] is merely a name which represents the supernatural forces which are basic expressions of life,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what you call it. It is a sacred force that represents the experience of life that informs human beingness.

Followers say she has learned about and accepted pre-Christian deities like no other European has ever done. Orisha worship is still a controversial belief. In the past it involved human sacrifice and there are rumours that still happens at secret shrines elsewhere in the country. Devotees of the orishas can worship either good or evil gods in order to get what they want.

Susanne Wenger did not work for fame or money: in fact she rejected both. She lived by a set of values, which included a great compassion for people, and a dedication to artistic expression.

            Susanne Wenger’s Legacy

• Due to Susanne’s lifelong efforts, the Sacred Groves of Osogbo, the 75 hectare old-growth forest has been preserved and is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005. She was honoured in Nigeria in the same year by being made a member of the federal republic.

• Susanne developed, in collaboration with a group of traditional artists and artisans who she mentored, the “New Sacred Art Movement” which is unique to Nigeria and recognised globally as an important form of artistic expression.The New Sacred Art located in the Sacred Groves of Osogbo is arguably one of the most impressive contemporary sculpture gardens in the world.

• The Sacred Groves is a vital repository of Yoruba history, culture and mythology as one of the last remaining sacred groves in Yorubaland. It is a central meeting point for people around the world interested in traditional culture and heritage in West Africa.Wenger’s bougainvillea-covered Osogbo house became a pilgrimage site to many, despite her insistence that her life was one of devotion to the spirit and not of tourism. Thanks to Mrs Wenger, the town’s annual festival of Osun has grown in size and popularity and thousands of Yorubas come every August to renew their dedication to the river-god.

• Susanne Wenger left people and organizations committed to continue her work—the artists of the New Sacred Art Movement, her adopted children Priest and artist Sangodare Ajala and Chief and Priestess Doyin Faniyi, the Adunni Olorisha Trust, the Susanne Wenger Foundation/Stiftung in Austria and all people who share her commitment to art and heritage in Nigeria.