Every time I reflected on the passage of the 50thOoni
of Ife, Oba OkunadeSijuwadeOlubuse 11 while his demise remained
unconfirmed in deference to tradition and after it was affirmed that the
great King of the Yorubas had joined his ancestors;my thoughts centred
on tensions between ancient traditions and modernity that Oba Sijuwade,
the chiefs and people of Ile-Ife, Yorubaland and the world continuously
grappled with. The phrase “ancient and modern”
lurked in the inner recesses of my sub-conscious and I needed a burst
of mental energy to bring it forth. “Ancient and Modern” is a popular
hymnal in the Church of England (in Nigeria, Anglican Church) introduced
in 1861 through the so-called “Oxford Movement”, an ecclesiastical
reform movement that sought to recover ancient Christian Hymns as well
as write new ones, hence “Hymns Ancient and Modern”.
I was born and educated within Anglican and Methodist traditions
accounting for the phrase’s residence in my remote memory. Oba
OkunadeSijuwade’s early upbringing and education at Igbein School,
Abeokuta and Abeokuta Grammar School were within a CMS-Church Missionary
Society (Anglican) context.
Mysteriously I had bought Jacob K. Olupona’s seminal book, “City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space and the Imagination”a
few weeks back. Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions,
African and African-American Studies at Harvard University. He also
authored “Kingship, Religion and Rituals in a Nigerian Community: A Phenomenological Study of Ondo Yoruba Festivals” and edited “Beyond Primitivism: Indigenous Religious Traditions and Modernity”.
Olupona’s father late Venerable Michael Olupona served in Ile-Ife as
Archdeacon of St. Phillips Anglican Church and was much beloved enabling
access to Ife’s traditional and religious elite to his son who had also
taught at the University of Ife. Immediately speculations arose about
Oba Sijuwade’s departure, I knew it was time for a more detailed reading
of Olupona’sremarkable book.
Olupona makes the historically uncontroversial statement-“To
the Yoruba people, Ile-Ife is the place where the Yoruba connect to a
historical and mythic lineage that defines, creates and promotes an
understanding of the world and a source of identity throughout West
Africa and the diaspora”. He notes that “Ile-Ife is one of the world’s principal sacred centers” recalling Paul Wheatley’s groundbreaking work on ancient centres of the world which included Ife as “a focal point in which the divine meets the corporeal”
and affirms that there is no ancient African city whose artistic
traditions and archeological findings have been more thoroughly studied
as Ile-Ife. Everyone is familiar with popular Yoruba creation
myths-Oduduwa supplanting Obatala in carrying out Olodumare’s creation
assignment; coming to earth with a cock and sand-“the place where Oduduwa accomplished this task was named Ile-Ife, the place where the earth spreads”;
or Oduduwa as crown prince of Lamurudu, a supposed King of Mecca, or
from Egypt or elsewhere in the “East” or the Niger-Benue Confluence, who
migrated to Ife; and the historical “dispersal, migration
and odyssey of the children of Oduduwa, who left the sacred city of
Ile-Ife to conquer, inhabit and establish new dynasties and new cities
and towns-Ondo, Owo, Benin, Ado-Ekiti, Ijebu-Ode, Ketu and Oyo”and others, a pattern of establishment of Yoruba states based on “cosmological relatedness”; “ebi” (lineage);a sacred pact based on semi-autonomous kinship groups; or ajobi-kinship and religious association.
Whatever mythical or historical foundations of Ile-Ife and Yoruba
establishment one resorts to; the common factor is Oduduwa as ancestral
reference point!
With regard to Ile-Ife’s historical importance in Yoruba politics, it is sufficient to quote Olupona-“the
significance of Ile-Ife in Yoruba political life is especially revealed
by two incidents: the visit of the Ooni, paramount ruler of Ile-Ife, to
Lagos in 1903; and the formation, in the 1940s and 1950s, of a
centralized pan-Yoruba cultural and quasi-political association based on
the Oduduwa myth, EgbeOmoOduduwa (Society of the Descendants of
Oduduwa) and its political successor, the Action Group”.
Ooni’s visit to Lagos in 1903 was unprecedented-until then it had been
considered taboo for Ooni to step outside Ife! Other Yoruba Obas were
petrified by this development, and they all, including the Alaafin of
Oyo vacated their palaces and went outside their city walls until Ooni
returned to Ife! Many Ife natives followed Ooni to Ife’s boundary with
Ibadan at Asejire and stayed there until Ooni returned to Ife!! Ooni
himself performed rituals throughout the trip to placate the gods! The
monarch had been invited by the new power, the colonial Governor to
Central Native Authority in Lagos to advise on the dispute between
Akarigbo of Ijebu-Remo and Elepe of Epe in Remo over Elepe’s right to
wear a beaded crown. Ooni’s ruling, pronounced in Lagos, that only
Awujale and Akarigbo of Ijebu monarchs got their crowns from Ife settled
the matter!!!
In 1903 it was inconceivable for any Yoruba Oba or individual to
dispute Ooni’sverdict evidenced by the response to Ooni’s ruling-“It
is instructive to read the astonishing concurrence of the members of
the elite Native Council of Lagos in their response to the Ooni’s
decision. “If a crown does not come from Ile-Ife, it is a worthless
thing” remarked Sufiano, one member. Another, SuleGiwa, declared, “The
Ooni has issued crowns to all the members of Yoruba from the Alaafin of
Oyo downward. If the Elepe did not receive his crown from the Ooni, that
crown has not come from Ile-Ife.” One AlliBalogun stated, “We also pray
for long life for the Ooni, we beg the Ooni to forgive the Elepe. The
Elepe has sinned; he has no right to wear a crown.” And Ogbogun stated,
“We are very much thankful to the Ooni. This sort of matter brings
trouble. The strongman crowns himself and brings on war. This matter is
in such a case. It is well known that only the Ooni can issue crowns.
Ife is the cradle of our race. All power and authority come from Ife.”TheOoni
who made that first visit to Lagos, was AdelekanOlubuse 1 (1894-1910),
grandfather of Oba OkunadeSijuwadeOlubuse 11 (1980-2015). The visit
signaled the final capitulation of traditional authority to the British
colonial state but also re-affirmed Ile-Ife’s authority as the source of
legitimacy in Yoruba kingship and traditional power.
OoniAdelekanpredicted the ascension of his grandson to the throne.
Oba Sijuwade recounted the story of a young girl (later
OkunadeSijuwade’s mother) who on visiting the palace, fell in love with
his grandfather. Oba Adelekan counselled the girl to marry his son
instead and blessed her with cowrie shells in a white bowl. She
subsequently met and married Sijuwade’s father leading to the fulfilment
of OoniOlubuse 1’s prediction.Oba OkunadeSijuwade was born on January
1, 1930 to the Ogboru Royal Family of Ilare, Ile-Ife to Omo-Oba
AderetiSijuwade, son of Olubuse 1 and Yeyelori Emilia Ifasesin. He
schooled in Abeokuta under Reverend I. O Ransome-Kuti before returning
to Oduduwa College, Ife where on his first school day, he was mistaken
for one of the new teachers! Sijuwade worked as a journalist at Nigerian
Tribune, owned by his mentor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo; studied business
at Northampton; and worked at the Leventis Group. His subsequent
business endeavours were successful and by December 6, 1980 when he
ascended the crown of “the holy city of the Yorubas”
(apologies Leo Frobenius) aged 50, he was a very wealthy man. Oba
Sijuwade’s reign was marked by his tripartite nationalistic partnership
with late Emir Ado Bayero of Kano and late Obi of Onitsha, OfalaOkagbue;
sanctions on Sijuwade and Bayero by the “Buhari-Idiagbon” military
regime over a private visit to Israel; the Ife-Modakeke “wars”and their
eventual peaceful resolution; the June 12 crisis over annulment of an
Egba-Yoruba, MKO Abiola’s victory in the 1993 presidential elections and
controversy over Abacha’s constitutional conference; the eight-year
presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo another Egba-Owu Yoruba; strains over
the politics and governance of Osun State; international recognition of
Ooni and Ife’s place in Yoruba mythology from Yoruba diaspora in Cuba,
Brazil, Haiti, Benin Republic, the Caribbean and elsewhere; growth and
development of Ife; and tension between traditional religious worship
and evangelical Christianity especially in relation to the rituals and
religious practices of the monarchy in Ife and the rest of Yorubaland.
This last tension, a contemporary illustration of the contrasting
pull of tradition and modernity, is well documented in Olupona’s book,
which ironically for the son of an Anglican Archdeacon, whose father
planted the seeds of Christian evangelism in the Ile-Ife palace, Olupona
seemed to have been lamenting! Professor Olupona carried out extensive
interviews with OoniSijuwade and his OloriMorisade, a staunch Christian
whom Oba Sijuwade referred to as “Prophetess in the Palace”!
The interviews confirmthat Oba Sijuwade rejected the traditional
conception of Ooni as “God-King” dismissing such as blasphemy! He
accepted the sovereignty of God (“There is only one God, and that is the Supreme God on High, Olorun”
Sijuwade declared) easing away from his earlier acclaimed title of
“Oluaye”; built a Christian Chapel within the palace; and lived his
latter years maintaining a delicate balance between his new Christian
fervency and traditional responsibilities as Ooni.OloriMorisade’son her
part was categorical-“I really loathe idol worship
(traditional religion)…I refuse to attend these festivals-even the Olojo
Festival, I refuse…for me to go to OkeM’ogun there, I would prefer God
to take me!”
Oba OkunadeSijuwadeOlubuse 11 reigned for thirty-five years and
passed on July 28 2015, at 85. It is noteworthy that each time Oba
OkunadeSijuwade renounced his divinity, his chiefs and court present
directly contradicted him. OoniSijuwade is gone, but the tension between
history and ancient traditions on one hand and modern politics,
powerand religionon the other,will continue.
by Opeyemi Agbaje
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