A Lesson in History: A Little Cultural Story

Hi all! I promised to keep this updated didn’t I? I’m trying to make up for lost days. What you are about to read is the 1st of several series of historical stories as told by me. They would relate myths, legends about ancient kingdoms, era and people known for their extraordinary feat.

My 1st story is about Ile-Ife. Why Ife? Well because it’s the “cradle of the Yorubas” (I’m Yoruba…like you didn’t know), its where I come from and where my Alma Mata is located. Let me pose a caveat, I tried to reference some writers as much as possible, but for the better part, they are things I read up somewhere and I can’t remember where I read it up or stories I heard from my grandma and my Yoruba teacher in secondary school but please don’t quote me. The idea is just so you get a feel of story behind the ancient Ife town & some of the people feature.

Name of Place: Ile-Ife (means “Place of Expansion”)

Location: Osun. (SW Nigeria)

Language: Yoruba

Oduduwa is the legendary founder of Ile-Ife and the progenitor of the Yoruba. There are two variants of the story of how he achieved this feat. The first is cosmogonic, the second, political.

1. The cosmogonic version concedes that Obatala was given the task of creating a solid ground where primal water existed on the earth and to mould the physical bodies of human beings to occupy the earth. It avers that Obatala got drunk even before he got to the earth and he was unable to do the job. Olodumare got worried when he did not return on time, and he had to send Oduduwa to find out what was going on. When Oduduwa found Obatala drunk, he simply took over the task and completed it. He created land using sand that he poured from snail shell, and then he got the hen to scatter the sand and the chameleon to test the firmness the ground formed (which according to the story is why the chameleon walks that way). The spot on which he landed from heaven and which he redeemed from water to become land is called Ile-Ife and is now considered the sacred and spiritual home of the Yoruba. Obatala was embarrassed when he woke up and, due to this experience; he made it a taboo for any of his devotees to drink palm wine. Olodumare forgave him and gave him the responsibility of moulding the physical bodies of human beings. The making of land is a symbolic reference to the founding of the Yoruba kingdoms, and this is why Oduduwa is credited with that achievement.

2. According to the second version of the myth, there was a pre-existing civilization at Ile-Ife prior to its invasion by a group led by Oduduwa. This group came from the east, where Oduduwa and his group had been persecuted on the basis of religious differences. They came to Ile-Ife and fought and conquered the pre-existing Igbo (unrelated to the present Igbo) inhabitants led by Oreluere (Obatala).

Obviously, there is a connection between the two versions of the story. I think the political one may be the authentic story of the founding of Ife kingdom. The claim that Obatala got drunk and the task of creation had to be performed by Oduduwa already has some political coloration which is now explicit in the political version of the tradition. The name Yoruba itself, according to historians Smith, Atanda and others, was fixed on us by our northern neighbors and later popularized by colonial publications. Before then, the "Anago" to which some Yoruba in the present Benin Republic and others in the new world still use to refer to themselves, was used to refer to most of the people called Yoruba today.

Some notable names in the history of Ile-Ife are:

· Moremi: Upon the death of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from Ife to found other kingdoms. These original founders of the Yoruba nation included Olowu of Owu (son of Oduduwa's daughter), Alaketu of Ketu (son of a princess), Oba of Benin, Oragun of Ila, Onisabe of Sabe, Olupopo of Popo, and Oranyan of Oyo. After the dispersal, the aborigines, the Igbo, became difficult, and constituted a serious threat to the survival of Ife. Thought to be survivors of the old occupants of the land before the arrival of Oduduwa, these people now turned themselves into marauders. They would come to town in costumes made of raffia with terrible and fearsome appearances, and the Ife people would flee. Then the Igbo would burn down houses and loot the markets. Then came Moremi (a dowager queen) on the scene-like Deborah of the Old Testament. When no man could dare the Igbos, Moremi asked the Esinminrin River for help and promised to give offerings if she could save her people. The Orisa told her to allow herself to be captured and to understudy the Igbo people. She got captured, married their ruler and discovered that these were not spirits; only people with raffia for dress. She escaped, and taught her people the trick. The next time that Igbo people came, they were roundly defeated. Moremi then had to go back to Esinminrin to thank the gods. Every offering she offered was refused. On divination, she was told she had to give Oluorogbo, her only son. She did. To Ife indigenes, Moremi’s story is one of patriotism and selflessness. She passed on and became a member of the Yoruba pantheon. The Edi festival celebrates the defeat of the Igbo and the sacrifice of Oluorogbo till today.

· Oranmiyan: (Also called Oranyan), Oranmiyan was the last of the Oduduwa offspring. But he was the most adventurous and the founder of Oyo Kingdom. When Okanbi died, he was called in from Oyo Kingdom to be the Ooni. He was known to be a warrior in is time. Now the story gets kinda hazy here to me but some accounts said he went underground on his own free will. Before leaving however, he instructed that whenever there was trouble in the land, the warriors can pull on a rope at the site where he went underground and he would come out to assist them in fighting the war. But some warriors got drunk and pulled the rope accidentally,Oranmiyan came out through the anthill and had massacred a lot of Ife indigenes before he realized his folly. He then vowed never to come out again to fight in any war that may avail Ife town. It is being said that his staff (see picture below) marks where he went underground.

To this day Yoruba kings trace ancestry to Oduduwa. Of all the centres of African art, there is none as remarkable for extraordinary accomplishments in many fields of art as the ancient town of Ife, the ritual centre of the great Yoruba tribe of western Nigeria.

Ife art includes terra-cotta and bronze heads and busts, stone sculpture, stools and religious pieces carved in quartz, monumental granite monoliths, statues of humans and animals.

Need I say this; Ife is home to OAU, Obafemi Awolowo University (Africa Most Beautiful campus).