17/05/2026
Oduduwa Europe is honoured to celebrate the landmark recognition of our founder and spiritual leader.
On Friday, 15 May 2026, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies convened a Sessão Solene, a formal Solemn Session of the Brazilian Parliament, in honour of bàbálórìṣà Prof. Adéṣínà Síkírù Sàlámì PhD, known as Bàbá King.
The session recognised Bàbá King’s outstanding contribution to the preservation, promotion, and transmission of Afro-diasporic culture, Yorùbá heritage, and religious freedom in Brazil.
A Sessão Solene is among the highest forms of public recognition that the Brazilian Parliament can formally confer. This honour reflects the depth of Bàbá King’s impact on Brazil’s cultural, academic, and spiritual life.
Born in Abẹ́òkúta, Nigeria, into a lineage of priests and priestesses spanning several generations, Bàbá King arrived in Brazil in the 1980s. He went on to earn a doctorate in Sociology from the Universidade de São Paulo and later founded Oduduwa Templo dos Orixás and Centro Cultural Oduduwa, institutions recognised nationally and internationally for their work in Yorùbá culture, philosophy, and the Ifá tradition.
Throughout his life and work, Bàbá King has dedicated himself to preserving and transmitting Yorùbá knowledge across generations, disciplines, and borders. His scholarly work, spiritual leadership, and the òrìṣà temples he has built in Brazil, Nigeria, Slovenia, Portugal, and Spain, stand as a lasting contribution to the continuity of African wisdom in the diaspora.
The Yorùbá tradition is one of the foundational pillars of Brazilian cultural identity. Present since the time of the African diaspora, it remains deeply woven into the country’s spiritual, musical, philosophical, and social development.
We warmly congratulate Bàbá King on this well-deserved institutional honour.
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