Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Sunday, charged Africans, particularly the Yoruba people to preserve their cultural heritage from going into extinction.
Obasanjo who stressed that African culture must be guarded, maintained that it is authentic.
The former president stated this in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while hosting renowned female talking drummer, Olamuyiwa Aralola, popularly known as Ara on the occasion of her 50th birthday at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL).
The former Nigerian leader said hosting Ara was a deliberate action to appreciate her efforts in preserving the African cultural heritage and making her mark in a vocation that was exclusively believed to be only for the male gender.
“For whatever reason, we must preserve our culture, Ara is a woman of culture, she is our cultural ambassador, she has lifted our culture and had broken the taboo on what was formerly believed to be exclusively for male gender. She had not only excelled in this, but was already building young ones to preserve her legacy.
“When I was growing up, there are two things that you don’t imagine a woman should do. You cannot see a woman climbing a palm tree. Secondly, you cannot see a woman playing talking drum, Ara had broken the taboo and she had done it very well,” Obasanjo said.
He added that the lesson in what Ara had done is in one doing whatever he or she is doing very well.
“Before now, parents do allow their son to play football but today, parents are now begging that their children should be allowed to play football.
“For me, if you are a dancer, dance well and if you invite me for celebration, I will come. If you are a footballer and you invite me for celebration, I will come. Whatever you find your hands in doing, do it well.
“We must not joke with our culture. We are being relegated to the background, our language is being relegated, our food, our dress and others. We must not allow it. They are things that are authentic. Yoruba is not vernacular.
“I am a Christian, I had attended two churches today and that does not mean that I should forget my culture. Whoever says Ifa is nothing, I will say that person is a big fool.
“Before Christianity and Islam, we have Ifa Orunmila meaning Olorun lo mo eni to ma la: “It is Heaven that knows who will be saved”.
Speaking earlier, the celebrant, appreciated God for attaining 50 years on earth, saying she never thought of it as she suffered an ailment from which she thought she would die.
Ara commended Obasanjo for the honour done her, saying the former president did what her parents could not wait to do for her.
Ara, who said she started playing talking drum at age 10 in her father’s palace in Ondo, said parents should do everything possible to preserve the culture, stressing that her accomplishment was feasible because she refused to allow her dream to die.
