what you get is what you see

Odunde

    A procession in honor of the African goddess Odun celebrates her gifts of abundance and fertility with offerings of fruit and flowers, with dance and song, and with wonderful food.  The festival occurs each June, in the old Philadelphia neighborhood where it has been observed for some twenty-five years.  Giant stilt- men cavort among the crowd, and an angry shaman drives off evil spirits with a wave of his staff.  Costumes betray the inevitable overlay of cultures – cowrie shells and garments of grasses collide with Gucci handbags and RayBan sunglasses.  Worshippers haltingly sing the half-remembered old songs.  They appear to dream of another place and an earlier time.