Ayọ̀ means joy in Yorùbá!
Ayọ̀ Retreats are intimate luxury wellness, yoga, art, and meditation retreats taking place in Africa and Southern Europe. They are specifically curated for beings who aim to reclaim joy and pleasure as their birthrights. Through ancient healing practices rooted in Yorùbá Òrìsà Ìṣẹ̀ṣe, yoga, mindfulness, connection with the land and nature, Ayọ̀ Retreats create space to realign our lives with our higher selves as we connect with the Earth, our ancestors, and our community.
The aim of our retreats is for everyone of you to leave feeling connected to your divinity, your source of joy, and your ancestors.
Ayọ̀ Retreats stemmed from a need to create a safe space for people to heal, grow and experience joy and pleasure without guilt and shame. It was inspired by our founder Adéolá Naomi Adérèmí’s trip to Benin in 2020, exploring art, spirituality and collective resilience. As a certified yoga therapist, Olorisa Ifa devotee, and healer, our founder has always wanted to share her joy and the beauty of our ancestral lands and the planet with other beings of light who are working with their ancestors and ready to align with our collective ancestral wisdom of liberation.
She wants us all to be come home to ourselves and our lands. While in Benin, every place Adéolá went, whispered a deep calling and every land she set her feet on kept claiming her. This experience culminated when she visited the Dahomey palace in Abomey. She felt aligned and filled with love, joy, and assurance that the Earth and her ancestors are continuously supporting and protecting her from this society that is constantly against the elevation of people like her.
It is through Ayọ̀ Retreats that Adéolá would like to share this precious gift with beings from the everywhere in the world who are eager to reconnect with themselves and the land as their ancestors through sacred healing circles, joy, pleasure, art, and divination.
BENIN 2026
JOIN us in November 2026 for an ancestral reconnection journey of rest, joy and rebirth on the peaceful lakes and rivers of Porto Novo in coastal West African country of Benin! Learn about Ifa cosmologoy with a world renowned Babalawo Onífádé Egbélàdé and custodian of Yoruba Religion of isese; Experience the transformational spiritual journey into the birthplace of Vodoun as we reconnect with its custodians, rich histories, and spiritual heritage in our Sankofa gratitude ceremony.
The retreat is curated around the African philosophy of Sankofa that we return to take what we need to build the new world we must, this retreat is also a co-creation with Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, author of Seeking Sexual Freedom and The Sex Lives of African Women who will also be leading us to join her at a Vodoun ceremony in Porto Novo to thank the community for their support of her work and celebrate her new book in the serene and spiritually-potent capital city of Benin.