Odunde festival returns to Philadelphia to celebrate African heritage — WHYY

A small crowd of paraders paused on the South Street Bridge Sun­day to offer gifts to Oshun, the riv­er god­dess in the Yoru­ba belief sys­tem of West Africa. A moment of prayer pre­ced­ed the throw­ing of offer­ings into the riv­er: whole pineap­ples, hon­ey-driz­­zled oranges, can­dy and streams of wine.  The rit­u­al is cen­tral to the Odunde…