We often refer to a portion of the Earth as ours, representing a country, state or ancestral land but in reality, the Earth owns us. We are her children. We are made of Earth, which is why our clothes get dirty from the inside as well as from the outside.

If 1000 people are put on Earth, within a few centuries of procreation, they might have become 100 thousand and the mass of Earth would have been reduced by the mass of the 99 thousand new people. People are formed from the food they eat which are formed from the Earth. So we are Earth. Total mass remains constant.

The Earth is our mother and this is the basis of the Ogboni fraternity or society.

Iba Ile Otete Lanbua
Aterere kari aye
Agbohunmafo tooto
Je ka gbo Je ka to
Ase Edumare
Edumare Ase

Translation

I pay Homage to Otete's Earth
Who is spread like a carpet all over the world.
She who hears but does not speak.
The true mother.
Grant us longevity and prosperity
Ase Edumare
Edumare Ase

All Ogboni members see each other as siblings or Omo iya which means children of thesame mother. The Iya or mother being the Earth. So one Ogboni intiate will address the other as 'Omo iya' meaning 'child of the mother or child of my mother'.

The Ogboni mantra runs thus

Igba omo ile ki e gbo o
Irinwo omo ile ki e gbo o
Eni ba se ika ko ma la o
Gbogbo omo ile ki e gbo o
E ma ma se ika ke le la o

Hear ye 200 children of the Earth
Hear ye 400 children of the Earth
Whoever does wrong must not prosper
Hear ye all ye children of the Earth
Do not ever do wrong so that you will prosper.

The function of the Ogboni society is to prevent the unnecessary shedding of blood on Earth's surface or Ile unless in sacrifice. The Ogboni also serves as a check on the government. Yoruba fights do not often degenerate into bloody encounters because of the Ogboni as the fighting parties will have to answer to the Ogboni, fined heavily and etc. It served as a means of maintaining order in the city. All Omo Iya as initiates call themselves must support each other. Disagreements must be civil and once a consensus has been reached it must be respected by all. Dissenters must hold their peace. Visitors to Yoruba land in the past noticed that fights never turned bloody among the Yoruba in their towns because of the Ogboni unlike what obtains among some neighbouring people to the Yoruba that did not have the Ogboni society. So the order was attributed to the Ogboni institution.

The Earth is our mother and we are all siblings. Developing your portion of the Earth is respecting the Earth, shunning violence, holding back from spilling blood on Earth, using deliberations and negotiations instead of war, to reach a consensus is respecting mother Earth. We are all Earthlings, children of the Earth or as the Ogboni would say 'Omo Iya'. We are Omo Ile to whose belly we all shall return.

Iba Ile o! Ase Edumare.