Atáọ́ja's Palace: Ladunni Keshinro in ilé Ọ̀ṣun

Priestess and princess Ladunni Keshinro shown in the Ọ̀ṣun House within the Palace of the Atáọ́ja of Òṣogbo, who is the custodian of the Ọ̀ṣun Òṣogbo festival. Ọ̀ṣun Òṣogbo is a ten to fourteen-day festival held in August of each year. It culminates in a massive procession to the Ọ̀ṣun Grove where the king, the Atáọ́ja of Òṣogbo, conducts rituals with the sacred objects carried by the arugbá (priestess and votary maid) to the Ọ̀ṣun Shrine.
The Ọ̀ṣun Festival in the Groves had dwindled in size to only a very small number of traditionalists prior to the arrival of Susanne Wenger in 1950 and the revitalization of the shrines by the New Sacred Art Movement, which Wenger founded. Over the years the Festival has grown to become the largest and most important Festival in Yorùbáland, indeed in the whole of Nigeria. The numbers are not formally recorded but it is said that tens of thousands of people join in the annual procession each year.
Hundreds of devotees make the pilgrimage yearly from foreign countries. Many of these come from South America and the Caribbean where Yorùbá religious traditions were passed down to the descendants of slaves taken from Yorùbáland, including Brazil, Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago. African Americans also come to Nigeria, and particularly Òṣogbo in increasing numbers, as interest in their African heritage and traditions grows.