US awards $127,000 grant for documentation, conservation of Osun-Osogbo Grove

The United States Consulate General Lagos on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and provided a $127,000 grant, for the digital documentation, training and conservation planning for the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove.

The grant, provided through the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) was awarded to CyArk, a California-based non-profit to document and make conservation plans for the Busanyin Shrine, one of eight monuments, located in the Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove.

Speaking at the MOU signing ceremony in Lagos, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said the event demonstrated the United States’ commitment to partner with Nigeria to preserve its rich history and culture.

According to her, the AFCP grants programme was administered through an annual competition by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

She said, “The grants support the preservation of major ancient archaeological sites, historic buildings and monuments, and major museum collections that are accessible to the public and protected by law in a host country.

“Through the AFCP, the U.S Mission has partnered with the Nigerian government to preserve cultural landmarks and sites for over a decade. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, the United States is proud to say that we have funded projects worth over a million dollars across Nigeria.

“Before this project, the U.S. Mission funded the conservation of the late 14th-Century Sungbo’s Eredo (ER RAY DOE) monument, the famed system of fortifications designed to protect the ancient Ijebu (EE JAY BU) Kingdom in Southwest Nigeria.

“Starting earlier this year, the $400,000 AFCP project is using three-dimensional laser scanning technology to generate a precise topographic map covering a thousand square kilometres of the area occupied by the monument. This 3-D map will be the most detailed map of any archaeological/architectural feature in Nigeria.”

Furthermore, Leonard said the grant to CyArk and its local partners would enable the documentation of a series of shrines within the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove and provide training to local professionals to build capacity in digital documentation skills and cultural heritage management.

“The Busanyi Shrine has been significantly damaged throughout the years due to extreme flooding. The 3D digital documentation of the shrine is the necessary first step to provide the most accurate record of the current conditions of the site to effectively plan a restoration project to increase the resilience of the site during a natural disaster or extreme weather conditions. This will allow for the Busanyi Shrine to remain intact as a cultural landmark for many years to come.

“Through projects like the one in the Sacred Grove, the United States and Nigeria are actively cooperating on means to protect Nigeria’s cultural heritage. We’re also initiating new ways as well, including a discussion of a bilateral agreement that would establish restrictions against the import into the United States of prohibited items of cultural property.

“The agreement would also encourage public and private cultural institutions and law enforcement agencies in both countries to work together on repatriating trafficked objects and fostering the cultural exchanges. In this way, the U.S. would demonstrate its commitment to protect and preserve Nigeria’s cultural heritage and Nigeria’s rich religious and ethnic diversity,” she added.

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On his part, Director-General of the National Commission of Museums and Monuments, Professor Abba Isa Tijani, said the 3-D documentation would help Nigeria know how to preserve the natural environment and to avoid environmental hazards before they happen.

“As you know the National Commission of Museums and Monuments is the body saddled with the conservation and preservation of the cultural and natural heritage of Nigeria and in this case, the Osun- Osogbo grove being a world heritage site is an important avenue to project our culture and tradition to the world.

“In doing that, we want to make sure that what we are doing, we are doing it to international standard and that is where CyArk comes in with their expertise so that they would be able to help us create 3-D documentation of the groove so that in case of any natural disaster or anything, we have the perfect model of the groove and all the representations there so that they would be able to reconstruct this in the future if there is a reason.

“Also, the Osun-Osogbo groove is the only world heritage site in Nigeria that combines both cultural heritage and the natural environment. So we need to bring these two together.

“We need to look after our natural heritage that is in the area because there is a natural disaster as well and as a result of that it would also affect our cultural artefact and that is why it is important to have this 3-D documentation and this 3-D documentation would be able to tell us how we will preserve the natural environment so that any environmental hazard can be avoided before it happens,” Tijani said.

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